SCHOOL OF LAW RESEARCH
Issue Newsletter 15 June – December 2018 Editor | Dr Jonathan Ercanbrack
Dr Ivana Isailović (Northeastern University School of Law) and Dr Vanja Hamzić (SOAS School of Law) attend the Conference on Law in Global Political Economy: Heterodoxy Now, organised by the Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP) at Harvard Law School (Cambridge, MA, USA) in June 2018.
Contents Editor’s Remarks
Publications 2-3
Conferences, Workshops esearchers and academics of the School distinguish SOAS’s legal academics in public & Presentations 4-5 of Law continue to show a remarkable life. These activities range from high-profile Research-Related consistency in producing world-class public lectures to radio interviews, newspaper - Projects/Seminar Series research, dealing with topics that are original, opinion pieces, collaboration with prominent - Honours, Awards & R Acknowledgements 6 controversial and path-breaking. The range researchers and the promising work of talented of issues with which publications grapple PhD researchers and their dedicated supervisors. A Retrospective: Twenty-five Years in the underscores the richness and vibrancy of the I hope you will join with me in celebrating the SOAS School of Law 7-9 SOAS School of Law research environment. richness of these research-related activities.
Visiting Scholars 10 Whether dealing with the challenges of On a more sombre note, I would like to note environmental law in rural India, intellectual Nick Foster’s recent departure from the SOAS PhD Research news 10-11 property law in the modern economy, critical School of Law. Everyone who had the fortune to Research Centre Activities 11 approaches to law in relation to gender, race, work with Nick values his professionalism and colonialist and other perspectives or the untiring devotion to his students, his erudite SOAS Law Journal 11 compatibility of Islamic principles in international research and the institution itself. Please make Centre for Islamic & Middle criminal law, the research highlighted in this sure to read Nick’s Retrospective on his 25 year Eastern Law (CIMEL) 12 newsletter is a reflection of what makes SOAS career at SOAS on page 7. Law, Environment & unique. Yet it is also important to take note of the I hope you enjoy this 15th edition of the SOAS Development Centre (LEDC) 12 wide range of research-related activities, which School of Law Research Newsletter.
1 Publications
Journal Articles Mayur Suresh, “The Social Life of Technicalities: ‘Terrorist’ lives in Delhi’s Courts” (2019) 53(1) Contributions to Indian Sociology (Forthcoming). Philippe Cullet, ‘Policy as Law: Lessons from Sanitation Interventions in Rural India’ (2018) 54 Stanford Journal of International Law 241-258. Edited Volumes Jonathan Ercanbrack, ‘Islamic Financial Law and the Law of the United Arab Emirates: Disjuncture and the Necessity for Reform’ 33 (2019) Arab Law Philippe Cullet and Raya Marina (eds.), Quarterly 1-27. Groundwater and Climate Change – Multi-Level Law and Policy Perspectives (Routledge, 2018). Jonathan Ercanbrack, ‘The Standardization of Islamic Financial Law: Lawmaking in Modern Vanja Hamzić, Muhammad Zubair Abbasi, Samy Financial Markets’ (forthcoming, 2019) American Ayoub, Nahed Samour and Nurfadzilah Yahaya Journal of Comparative Law 1-52. (eds.), ‘Islamic Law and Empire’ (Special Issue of Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (v. 19 Gina Heathcote, ‘War’s Perpetuity: Disabled Bodies (2016-17) Brill, 2018). of War and the Exoskeleton of Equality’ (2018) 44 (2) Australian Feminist Law Journal 71. Martin Lau and Faris Nasrallah (eds.), 19 Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (v. 19 (2016-17) Gina Heathcote, ‘Security Council Resolution 2242 Brill, 2018) 1- 486. on Women, Peace and Security: Progressive Gains or Dangerous Development?’ (2018) 32 (4) Special Issue on Gender and Security, Global Society 374. Makeen Makeen, ‘The Evolution and Scope of the Chapters in Edited Volumes Public Performance Right of Musical Works Under International, U.S. and Egyptian Copyright Laws’ Mashood Baderin, ‘Islamic Socio-Legal Norms (2018) 65 (2) Journal of the Copyright Society of and International Criminal Justice in Context: the USA 169. Advancing an ‘Object and Purpose’ cum ‘Maqáṣid ’ Werner Menski, ‘Law as a Global Entity Through Approach’ in Gray, T. (ed.), Islam and International Italian Eyes and Minds’ (2018) 11 (1) Ethics Criminal Law and Justice (Torkel Opsahl Academic and Global Politics 1-13. [Contribution to the EPublisher, 2018) 45-82. Symposium on The Legal Order. Santi Romano. Mashood Baderin, ‘Islam and Modernity: A Case Edited and translated by Mariano Croce with a Study of Yorubaland’ in Opeloye, M.O., Bidmos, foreword by Martin Loughlin and an afterword by M.A. and Afis, O, (eds.), Islam in Yorubaland: Mariano Croce]. History, Education and Culture (University of Lagos Lutz Oette, ‘An Innovative Approach to Women’s Press, 2018) 187-205. Studies in Sudan: A Review and a Report’ (2018) 58 Vanja Hamzić, ‘A Cry for Madness: Governance Sudan Studies for South Sudan and Sudan, 5-9. Feminism and Neoliberal Consonance in Pakistan’ Mayur Suresh, “The ‘Paper Case’: Evidence and in Janet Halley, Prabha Kotiswaran, Rachel Narrative in a Terrorism Trial in Delhi” (2019) 53 Rebouché and Hila Shamir (eds.), Governance (1) Law and Society Review (Forthcoming). Feminism: Notes from the Field (University of Minnesota Press, 2018) 407-433.
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Vanja Hamzić, ‘A Renaissance Interrupted? Media, Blogs, Interviews & Reports Debating Personhood through a Sexual Act in the Twelfth-Century Christianate and Islamicate Worlds’ in Sabine Schmidtke (ed.), Studying the Brenna Bhandar, ‘Organised State Abandonment: Near and Middle East at the Institute for Advanced The Meaning of Grenfell’ (The Sociological Study, Princeton, 1935-2018 (Gorgias Press, 2018) Review (19 September 2018)
3 Conferences, Workshops & Presentations
Dr Brenna Bhandar ‘When Troubles Occur: Divorce and Inheritance Disputes Across Borders’, Private investor: Middle ‘Decolonising the Study of Law: Race, Gender East International Conference (Invited Speaker, and the Colonial’, Settler Colonialism at the Bar: Private Investor, London, 27 September 2018). An Interdisciplinary Workshop on Law, Racial ‘Sharia in Britain’, Workshop for Saudi Academics Subjects and Colonial History, (Keynote Speaker, Organised by Centre of Islamic Studies SOAS Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, 5 (Invited Speaker, Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS, October 2018)
‘In the Marxian Workshops’, Book Launch Dr Jonathan Ercanbrack (Organiser, Centre for Colonialism, Empire and Law and the Department of Development Studies, ‘Sustainable Islamic Finance: Streamlining SOAS, London, 6 November 2018). Investment Practices’, Deloitte & CISI Islamic Finance Forum (Invited Panellist, Deloitte &
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Dr Vanja Hamzić gives the ‘Reader’s Lecture’ entitled, ‘A Renaissance Interrupted? Personhood, “Sodomy” and the Public in 12th Century Christian and Islamic Proto-Civil Legality’ at The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple on 19 November 2018, where he is an Academic Fellow.
West Africa and Colonial Louisiana’, Law and East Studies Association Annual Conference Society Association Annual Conference (Law and (San Antonio, Texas, 17 November 2018). Society Association, Toronto, June 2018). ‘Law and Revolution in the Arab Spring’, (University ‘Critique and the Real Thing’, IGLP Conference: of Houston, Texas, 13 November 2018). Law in Global Political Economy: Heterodoxy ‘What Good is Abstraction?’ in Tempering Power Now (Invited Speaker, Institute for Global Law Conference (Buffalo Law School, State University of and Policy, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, New York, Buffalo, New York, 10 November 2018). Massachusetts, June 2018). ‘Law and Revolution in the Arab Spring’, (Fletcher ‘Archival Violence: Or, How to (Un)Archive the School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University, Life-Worlds of Eighteenth-Century Enslaved Massachusetts, 6 November 2018). Gender-Variant West Africans’, IGLP Conference: Law in Global Political Economy: Heterodoxy ‘Law and Revolution in the Arab Spring’, (University Now (Speaker, Institute for Global Law and Policy, College London, London, 18 October 2018). Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, ‘Author Meets Readers’ Session on Law and June 2018). Revolution (Annual Meeting of Law and Society ‘History Otherwise: (Un)Archiving Eighteenth- Association, Canada, June, 2018). Century Lives and Afterlives of the Enslaved ‘Law and Revolution in the Arab Spring’ (Oriental Gender-Variant West Africans’, SOAS School of Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, May 2018). Law Away Day, (SOAS, The Foundry, London, May 2018). Constitutionalism and Gender Conference, (Al-Najah University Law School, West Bank, Palestine, May 2018). Dr Nimer Sultany ‘Panel Discussion of Law and Revolution in the Arab Spring (Queen Mary University of London, London, MESA Presidential Panel, ‘Challenging Times: May 2018). Protecting Academia in an Era of Change’, Middle
5 Research-Related Martin Lau of the School of Law. In 2019 we shall welcome Dr Sally El Sawah on 31 January to discuss Projects/Seminar Series investment protection and the right of the host state to regulate; and on 28 February Ms Eunice Shang- Simpson will critique the participation of African States in the work of UNCITRAL, giving an insider’s perspective to this important issue. Finally, on Dr Gina Heathcote 28 March we shall welcome Mr Solomon Ebere of Omnia Strategy (Cherie Blair’s legal practice) Gina received SLS funding to host a workshop and to discuss small states and costs in international symposium for a project title ‘Critical Approaches to arbitration. These seminars are open to the general the Law of the Sea’. The workshop, on Gender and public and each is followed by a wine reception. the Law of the Sea, will be held in Term 3 during the 2018/19 academic year. The Symposium will be held in Term 2 in the 2018/19 academic session. The project revolves around the organisation of a workshop and a larger symposium to further legal writing and research on the law of the sea via the Research-Related drawing in of critical legal research on gender, race, colonialism and heteronormativity alongside cutting Honours, Awards & edge engagements with environmental subjectivity Acknowledgements to challenge the perception of the international law of the sea as a field of largely ‘technical’ and ‘black letter law’ developments. The workshop and symposium will specifically seek to attract scholars using interdisciplinary methods (from archival / Dr Nimer Sultany international legal history projects, gender studies, critical race studies, institutionalism, the study of In June 2018 Nimer was awarded the International sexuality, human rights fields, environmental studies, Society of Public Law Book Award for his recent security studies and beyond) to develop the field monograph, Law and Revolution: Legitimacy and as one that is not only a technical / black letter law Constitutionalism After the Arab Spring, published arena (as it is often perceived) but an important area by Oxford University Press. His success did not of law that would benefit from the insight of critical stop there. In September 2018 he received the Peter legal scholarship to address underlying assumptions Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship from and knowledge entrenched within the field of study. the Society of Legal Scholars. A further honour, albeit one with research-related obligations, came with the invitation to serve on the Board of Editors Dr Emilia Onyema of the Arab Law Quarterly. Give it up for Nimer!
The SOAS Arbitration Public Seminars (organised by Dr Emilia Onyema) for this academic year got off Dr Makeen Makeen to an exciting start. On 25 October we welcomed Mr Hussein Haeri, Partner at Withers LLP to discuss Makeen’s work was cited before the United States the five top controversies (in his view) in investment Court of Appeal (9th Cir.) in OAF v. JAY-Z, 2016 treaty arbitration and proffer some solutions. This WL 4494571. This Court of Appeal is the largest seminar was chaired by Mr Ian Edge of the School of the 13 Courts of Appeal in the United States. It of Law. On 29 November 2018 we shall welcome has jurisdiction over California and Washington Judge Edward Torgbor of Christ Church College, State, amongst other jurisdictions. The court is University of Oxford, to share his thought on the located in San Francisco, California, making it a New York Convention on the Recognition and very important court for the adjudication of Silicon Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 1958 Valley’s disputes involving intellectual property at 60. This seminar will be chaired by Professor law. Here’s to Makeen!
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A Retrospective: Twenty-five Years in the SOAS School of Law
Nick Foster
hen I started at SOAS, my youngest introductory course and CCL. CCL eventually daughter had just started walking. A few turned into the present undergraduate Commercial moments later, or so it seemed, some and Company Law modules and inspired two Wof my Masters students were younger than her. postgraduate modules, one also called CCL and, some Twenty-five years had gone by. time later, International and Comparative Corporate Jonathan has asked me to write about what Law (ICCL). Peter Muchlinski and I designed the I have done in that time and the changes which have latter and co-taught it until his retirement. I also taken place in the School of Law. That is a tall order introduced a spin-off from the postgraduate CCL so I will just give a few snapshots. course, Foundations of Comparative Law. A mainly non-British family background led me Both ICCL and the postgraduate CCL greatly to studying languages at school, Arabic and law at benefited from the participation of colleagues, whose Cambridge and French law in Aix-en-Provence, then contributions added remarkable breadth to the to Clifford Chance, where I worked for the partner modules. responsible for the Middle East. Life as a solicitor I am particularly proud of the ICCL and the had many good aspects and taught me invaluable postgraduate CCL courses. To my knowledge, they skills. However, a desire to teach took me (with a were unique in their comparative, contextual and few detours on the way) to SOAS. An appointment Asian/African perspectives. Many former students as a visiting lecturer was followed by have said how useful the courses were a part-time, then a full-time post. I am particularly and how they enriched their view of In 1993 the Law Department was proud of the ICCL law generally. very different from the School of and the postgraduate I received invaluable guidance Law of today. The time of Anderson, CCL courses. To my from colleagues, not just in the first Coulson and Derrett had not long knowledge, they year or two but for a considerable time passed and the main Asian/African were unique in thereafter. I owe those colleagues focus was still on regional/religious their comparative, an immense debt and I am deeply law. Research assessment was contextual and Asian/ grateful African perspectives. less important, there were fewer Outside the Law Department I students, PhDs were administered lectured on the Chinese lawyers’ by the university, the LLM was intercollegiate and programmes and developed the law side of the School the law MA did not exist. There was considerably of Finance and Management’s MSc in Finance and less administrative support. We produced our own Financial Law, on which I also taught for a couple of timetable and our own fractional budget. We did not years and held several administrative posts. even have a law librarian. During his time as Head of Department, Michael Palmer and I worked together on the strengthening Teaching of the School of Law’s commercial offerings. Several In 1993-1994 I stood in for Ian Edge, who was on colleagues were appointed, and the result was a research leave, and taught Comparative Commercial unique range of commercial subjects taught in Asian Law (CCL) and Conflicts. Getting up to speed was a and African comparative perspective. challenge, especially since I was also consulting in I have supervised, co-supervised and examined the UAE. PhDs on a range of subjects with reference to various After the first year I taught several undergraduate jurisdictions and I have sat on various doctorate courses—Conflicts with Ian, Law and Development level appellate committees in the University with Peter Slinn, the first term of Contract, the of London.
7 I was also one of several colleagues who worked together to procure the appointment of our first law librarian, Sarah Spells. We were extraordinarily lucky to have Sarah. She transformed our library provision and made the formerly recurrent student complaints a thing of the past. Her untimely death was a tragic blow.
Research One of my major aims has been to raise My research and my teaching have been teaching standards, both my own and generally. intertwined and interdependent from the outset A considerable amount of collaborative work in what I hope has been a synergetic and virtuous ensued and, on my part, various outputs, including cycle. As I taught, I became aware of deficiencies in participation in the pilot stage of SOAS’s first virtual the scholarly literature and produced publications in learning environment, a guide to legal writing, essay order to remedy them. Using these publications in my templates, a technique for exam preparation along teaching allowed me to develop my thinking, which with a guide and, in 2017-2018, a guide to answering led to further publications. Company Law exam questions plus a set of worked Thus I found myself on a journey, a sort of Magical examples. The exam preparation technique and Mystery Tour to unexpected places. In October the Company Law guidance have been particularly 1993 I was a commercial lawyer with an interest popular with students. Several have said that one or in the Middle East. I never dreamt of becoming a both of them were instrumental in their achieving comparatist, let alone a theorist introducing new better, and in some cases outstanding, grades. ideas and challenging received ones. However, that is My efforts were recognised in 2006 when what happened. I received the SOAS Director’s Teaching Prize. It was the interest in the Middle East which started that journey. In international financial law one of the Administration few areas which require comparative analysis is the My principal administrative posts were law of security and guarantees. Little comparative Undergraduate Tutor, Deputy Examinations Officer, work was available on its Islamic law and Middle Chair of the SOAS Health and Safety Committee, Co- East aspects and there was nothing on the law of Director of the Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern guarantees. So I set out to fill this gap, my first foray Law (CIMEL) and Chair of the Departmental Learning into academic comparative law. Step 1 of the journey. and Teaching Committee. My main objective was to Step 2 came from the dearth of work on guarantees. facilitate teaching, administration and research and I In order to compare, one needs a comparative devoted a great deal of time and effort to this end. framework and to produce this framework one needs As Deputy Examinations Officer I codified theory. However, there was no theory on the law of departmental practice on the production and scrutiny guarantees, so I produced it myself. The series of of examination papers. I ran the process for a long articles which came out of the work on security and time, an exercise which also involved, for quite a few guarantees has proved useful for practitioners in the years, formatting and amending the papers myself. Gulf and has been used in further research and the As Undergraduate Tutor, sometimes by myself reform of Iraqi law. and sometimes with a colleague, I steered the UG Up to that time, I had not challenged any existing ship for six years through difficult waters, revised views. In the law of guarantees, there were none. the undergraduate programmes, introduced Step 3 changed that. Research into company law compulsory mooting, which solved some recurrent theory revealed the deficiencies of the literature and problems, devised and implemented the first form after much thought I formulated a radically different of what became the SOAS Mitigating Circumstances view of the subject. That view is so heterodox that procedure, procured its adoption in the faculty (it was it is difficult to communicate, but the independent eventually adopted in SOAS as a whole—yes, it was me, formulation of some similar approaches and the I own up…), negotiated an increase in pay for fractional recent appearance of an article in the Cambridge colleagues and helped to bring in electronic databases. Journal of Economics indicate progress.
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Step 4 came from a ‘road to Damascus’ Some Reflections moment in Harvard in 2004 when I realised that What elements stand out from the past twenty- a transnational legal system is emerging in Islamic five years? We are all well aware of the problems in finance. Later on, some further thoughts came from academia and, rather than dwell on them here, I will this realisation. The Islamic finance legal system recall the many good things I have experienced. was interacting with municipal legal systems. It One of those is the increase in my state of knowledge was transforming and developing those parts of from 1993 to now. I was extraordinarily lucky to go the sharia used in Islamic finance. In this and other from where I was then to where I am now. Other good fields of study it was necessary to consider not just things include the obvious, such as the autonomy we the law but the legal system, the law’s functional enjoy as academics, contributing to knowledge in framework which makes it and makes it work. fascinating subjects and helping students by teaching Like the company law theory ideas, the heterodox and pastoral care. nature of these views means that they are difficult to All this took place in a unique institution. Where communicate and that certain aspects of them are else does one find a group of people in which unwelcome in some quarters. However, they have bilingualism is so common that formed a significant part of the theoretical basis for it is considered hardly worth Probably the most three PhDs on Islamic finance, two books derived mentioning? Where else would important element, from them (Jonathan’s and Amel Makhlouf’s, see a combination of English law, however, has been the my speech on Amel’s book) and, of course, my own French law, commercial and human contact with Islamic finance publications. company law, conflicts, law and colleagues and students. The Magical Mystery Tour also took me into development, Islamic commercial This is what I will comparative law. Notable projects in this area are law, Middle East legal history and remember most fondly. the Journal of Comparative Law, of which I was comparative law be viewed as a the principal instigator (the journal is presently normal skill set? We worry about diversity and so edited by Michael Palmer and William Butler, who forth. That is right and proper. Laurels must not be also produce a book series), a collective review of rested upon. Glenn’s Legal Traditions of the World and an edited At the same time, the SOAS environment should not volume (with Maria Federica Moscati and Michael be taken for granted. It is extraordinary. It is the only Palmer) on interdisciplinarity in comparative law. workplace in which I have felt completely at ease and I The next project is a book on the role of am deeply grateful that it has been my intellectual and, commerce in the transformation of legal systems, in many ways, my spiritual home for so long. with particular reference to the Eastern Arab Probably the most important element, however, World. Work already completed here includes the has been the human contact with colleagues and filling of another theoretical lacuna, on the ways students. This is what I will remember most fondly. in which trade produces legal change. Also on the It is human contact which leads me to my farewell. agenda are an article on Islamic finance and the Jonathan asked me to mention any aspects of what article on commercial law in the third edition of the I had experienced in my time at SOAS which might Encyclopaedia of Islam. be helpful for colleagues dealing with the challenges I have also published on subjects such as sharia facing the School of Law. business associations, Islamic commercial law and On one level, there is a great deal I could say, but commercial law history. A list is available here. it would take far too long. On another level, what I Other activities include setting up the SOAS have to say can be expressed in very few words and Law of Islamic Finance Working Papers Series, is, in a sense, obvious. Nonetheless it bears repetition, participating in the Higher Education Academy’s because it is vital. In our short, fragile lives, wherever Islamic Studies Project Advisory Board, out of we are, whatever we are doing we all need less fear and which came the British Association of Islamic more kindness. More peace, love and understanding. Studies and representing SOAS in the British As I go off to new ventures, that is what I wish you. Association of Comparative Law. I have recently With all my heart. been appointed to the editorial board of the Arab Law Quarterly. Nick Friday, 3 December 2018
9 Visiting Scholars
Ms Jee Min Song (PhD Candidate Seoul National into the political powers that will affect institutional University; LLM Emory University; LLB BPP Uni- shareholders and the corporate governance regime versity; MS Seoul National University; BBA & BA in South Korea. Second, having examined outside Seoul National University): influences on shareholder voting, the research will Jee Min’s main research interest seeks to identify also consider whether adopting the stewardship code ways in which shareholder voting can be improved in will change the pattern of institutional shareholders South Korea. Her research asks three main questions, voting in South Korea. Her research also assesses which relate to the proxy advisory firm, stewardship whether adopting the Anglo-American corporate and the virtual shareholder meeting. Firstly, it governance model - the proxy advisory regulation analyses the roles of the proxy advisory firm in South and the Stewardship Code - will be feasible in South Korea: How influential the proxy advisory firms are Korea. Finally, the research deals with how the in South Korea and whether it will change in the near effects of the shareholder meeting will change after future; how can the interests of the proxy advisory developing the process of the virtual meeting. Will firm be aligned with shareholders? It also delves shareholders continue to be rationally reticent?
PhD Research news
– such as between law and politics. In Nepal Sara PhD Completions gained invaluable first-hand information on the Professor Philippe Cullet supervised a 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement through number of PhD students to completion: key informant interviews – including with some of Dr Lovleen Bhullar, Water Pollution in India: the negotiators – as well as archival research. She Environmental Rights Litigation as a Solution (2018) is now working to complete a full draft of her thesis [viva on 2 October 2018, pass without corrections] and is a GTA for the module, the International Protection of Human Rights. Dr Yuan Qiong Hu, Rethinking Patent Centric Biomedical Innovation: Towards an Alternative PhD Conferences, Seminars & Presentations Conceptual Framework Building (2018) [viva on 16 November 2018, pass without corrections] Ms Gayathri D. Naik, ‘Analysis of Child Rights and Both Dr Lovleen Bhullar and Dr Hu Yuanqiong Access to Safe Drinking Water in India’, Children’s have contributed to teaching as Graduate Teaching Right to Health (Centre for Cultures of Reproduction, Assistants during their doctoral studies at SOAS. Technologies and Health (CORTH) School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, 11th December 2017). Snapshot Ms Gayathri D. Naik, ‘Inter-sectorial Water Ms Sara Bertotti: As part of her PhD research on Allocation of Groundwater in India and Water Scarcity law and peace agreements, Sara Bertotti completed in Cities: Human Right to Water v Human Right to her fieldwork in Kathmandu, Nepal, in August 2018. Food?’, 2018 IUCN Academy of Environmental Law The objective of Sara’s doctoral research is to Colloquium: The Transformation of Environmental widen the current understanding of the role of law Law and Governance: Innovation, Risk and Resilience during the transition from conflict to peace with a (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, July 4-6, 2018). particular focus on the crucial node of the making of Ms Gayathri D. Naik, ‘Non-State Actors and peace agreements. Because of the hybrid nature of Turbulent Water: Role of Non-State Actors in peace agreements, Sara’s work crosses disciplinary Development, Management and Dispute Settlement boundaries internal to law – between international in International Water Law’, 10th Ph.D. colloquium in and constitutional law – as well as external ones SOAS (SOAS, London, 8 June 2018).
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New PhD Research Students to be supervised by Professor Philippe Cullet: Ms Zainab Lokhandwala, (BSL LLB (ILS Research Centre Activities Law College, Pune), LLM in International & Centre for Human Comparative Law (NUJS, Kolkata), LLM (SOAS)): Zainab joined the MPhil/PhD programme in Rights Law September 2018 to work on a thesis based on Chair: Dr Lutz Oette protecting bio-cultural rights of Indian farmers within the larger context of sustainable food Joint Submission, ‘Sudan’s Compliance with its systems and food sovereignty. She is interested Obligations Under the International Covenant on in exploring this topic through the lens of legal Civil and Political Rights in the Context of Mixed pluralism, by engaging in a comparative analysis Migration from, and to Sudan’, Joint Submission of environmental values in different legal systems to the UN Human Rights Committee-Review of Su- at the national and local levels. She recently dan’s State Party Report) (Centre for Human Rights completed her LLM at SOAS in Environmental Law, SOAS, London September 2018). Law. Previously Zainab worked as an advocate in Kolkata (India) in matters of environmental law, Workshop, ‘Workshop on the State of UK Prisons consumer protection, family law and banking. and the Prohibition of Torture’, UK Prohibition In Kolkata, she also worked at the Centre for of Torture Network, (Senate House, London, Regulatory Studies, Governance and Public Policy 21 November 2018). (CRSGPP) at the National University of Juridical Science (NUJS), and later moved to New Delhi to Professor Nick Hardwick, ‘Why Should Anyone work at the Centre for Comparative Law (CCL) at Care about the Human Rights of Prisoners?’, the National Law University Delhi. She has also Keynote Lecture with Professor Nick Hardwick taught environmental law at NUJS as a Teaching and Discussant, Dr Carla Ferstman (UCL Global Assistant. Her publications and research have Governance Institute, UCL School of Law, Royal focused on environmental standards under Holloway University of London and SOAS Centre international trade law, groundwater law and for Human Rights Law, 21 November 2018). policy, forest laws and rights of indigenous peoples. Mr Peter Joseph Tweedley, (LLM GDL MA Joint Honours): Peter joined the MPhil/PhD programme SOAS Law Journal in September 2018 to work on a doctoral project entitled: An assessment of the compatibility of SOAS Law Journal, a student-run FPIC, Environmental law and traditional values law journal, published Volume of indigenous peoples pursuant of international V (ii) in the latter half of 2018. sustainable development goals. Peter graduated The second issue deals with a from the University of St Andrews with a joint wide range of legal topics and honours masters in international relations and jurisdictions, placing a heavy focus modern history before pursuing the Graduate on international human rights Diploma in Law and LLM in Public International law but also covering criminal law Law at City University of London. On the LLM, and comparative legal analysis. Peter specialised in the land rights of indigenous SOAS Law Journal now welcomes peoples, comparative constitutional law and submissions to Volume VI (1). international economic law. He has previously worked as a Russian political analyst, journalist, and a private tutor in political and legal subjects. Alongside the PhD, he is a Research Analyst at The Legal 500’s GC Powerlist Series and researches and publishes about the in-house legal market in many jurisdictions worldwide.
11 for Musawah’s new multi-year research initiative conceptualised at the SOAS meeting in May. Mr Aysh Chaudhry, corporate lawyer at Clifford Chance and a SOAS LLB alum, visited CIMEL on 6 December 2018 to give a talk on ‘the Sharia Compliance of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies’. Qatar Financial Centre Authority, under the auspices of CIMEL at SOAS, published the ‘Report on SOAS-QFC Islamic Finance Workshop & Public Lecture’ in December 2018. The SOAS-QFC Islamic Participants in the Helsinki workshop, Finance Workshop & Public Lecture takes place including CIMEL members Lynn every February at SOAS. The Workshop brings Welchman and Ziba Mir-Hossein together leading thinkers – bankers, economists, sharia scholars, regulators, lawyers and academics – to discuss the most pressing issues facing the Islamic finance industry. Both the workshop and public lecture are generously supported with a QFC grant. Centre for Islamic & Middle Eastern Law (CIMEL) Chair: Dr Jonathan Ercanbrack
Dr Faiza Ismail (Visiting Scholar (SOAS)); Law, Environment & Assistant Professor, Shaik Ahmed Hassan School of Development Centre (LEDC) Law, Lahore University of Management Studies): Faiza visited SOAS from July-August 2018 to Chair: Professor Philippe Cullet collaborate with Jonathan Ercanbrack in relation to her book proposal entitled: The Republic of Ireland: Workshop, ‘Designing Law and Policy Towards Leading Islamic Finance into the Euro-Region? Managing Plastics in a Circular Economy’ (SOAS, The forthcoming book is an adaptation of Faiza’s 2 June 2018): LEDC together with the PhD thesis. Environmental Regulatory Research Group at the Professor Lynn Welchmann and Dr Ziba School of Law, University of Surrey, the Doctoral Mir-Hosseini: On November 9-10, 2018, CIMEL School at SOAS and the School of Law, Essex convened a Methodology Workshop with Musawah University co-organised a workshop on 2 June 2018 (the Global Network for Equality in the Muslim on “Designing Law and Policy Towards Managing Family) and the Faculty of Theology of the University Plastics in a Circular Economy”. Speakers from three of Helsinki, in follow-up to the conceptual meeting continents spoke in sessions organised around three held at SOAS in May this year (which was funded by broad clusters: 1) Circular Economy and Plastics – CIMEL and SOAS Seed Corn funds). The Helsinki Context for Law and Policy Making 2) Rethinking meeting was a closed workshop funded jointly Law and Policy for A Circular Economy 3) Plastics by the University of Toronto’s Institute of Islamic and the Circular Economy from a Global South Studies and Faculty of Law, and Helsinki’s Faculty Perspective. The workshop will lead to a special issue of Theology. Workshop participants held in-depth of the Law, Environment and Development Journal discussions on the methodological approaches (LEAD-journal.org) in 2019.
SCHOOL OF LAW RESEARCH If you would like to contribute to the next edition please contact the editor Dr Jonathan Newsletter Ercanbrack by email: [email protected]
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