SOAS School of Law

Research Newsletter Issue 12, Oct 2016–April 2017 Research News from Staff and Students Contents Firstly, in research grant news, Dr Melek Saral of the Universi-

Research News 1-2 ty of Zurich and Professor Mashood Baderin of the SOAS School of Law have been awarded a 2-year Marie Curie Fellowship grant of

€183,454 for a research project on ‘Human Rights in Post-Uprisings Arbitration in Africa Project 3 Middle East: Emerging Discourses and Practices in Egypt and Tuni- sia’. The project commenced on 1 May 2017 and will run for 24 EconoSocioLegal Inspiration 4 months. Dr Saral will be working under the supervision of Professor Baderin as a full-time fellow and staff member in the SOAS School of Law. The research project aims at interrogating the human rights The In/Formal Constitution in 5-6 discourses and practices in the MENA region undergoing transition Central Asia through the course of the so-called Arab Spring by conducting a On Military Law, Melbourne 7 comparative analysis of two key countries — Egypt and Tunisia. Pro- and General Melchett fessor Carol Tan was also awarded £700 from the Sino-British Fel- lowship Trust to continue fieldwork in Hong Kong on migrant work- Research Centre Activities 8-9 ers’ experiences of the Labour Tribunal. We also have some PhD completions to celebrate. Prince Constitutional Systems Book 9 N.C. Olokotor successfully defended his thesis with minor correc- Launch tions. Dr Olokotor's thesis examined the attitudes of the English and Nigerian courts towards the enforcement of transnational arbitral New Publications 10-12 awards under the New York Convention for the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. He was supervised by Dr Conference Presentations 13-15 Emilia Onyema. Jinan Yousef Bastaki also passed her PhD with mi- nor corrections on the topic of ‘Refugees No More: The Implications of Citizenship for the Palestinian Right of Return’. Dr Bastaki was

Professor Lynn Welchman (2nd from left) and Professor Ziba Mir-Hosseini (7th from left) with Palestinian Shari’a Court judges and other international experts at a roundtable discussion convened by UN Women and Musawah, Amman, 9 February 2017 (see page 2). Photo: http://palestine.unwomen.org/en/news-and-events/stories/2017/02/sharia-judges-meeting. 1 supervised by Dr Catriona Drew and Professor Lynn Welchman. Two of Professor Werner Menski’s students have also recently completed their PhDs. Manpreet Kaur Virdi’s thesis was on the topic of ‘Marriage Breakdown Amongst Punjabi-Sikhs in Canada: A Legal Ethnography of Disputes, Navigating (Un)official Forums and Access to Family Justice in Ontario, Canada’ and Biswajit Chanda’s thesis was on ‘Family Law Reform in Bangladesh: The Need for a Culture-Specific Legal System’. Members of SOAS School of Law have recently been featured in the media. Dr Gunnar Beck appeared on BBC television (Daily Politics, 27 Jan 2017) and BBC Radio Scotland (Good Morning Scotland, 26 Feb 2017) to discuss various legal aspects of the Brexit process, and wrote an article on Germany’s euro bail-out under the European Central Bank’s Target2 system for Rheinische Post, Düsseldorf (May 2017). In addition he gave an interview to Mainichi Shimbun Newspaper, Tokyo, on the legal and economic aspects of Brexit and the euro crisis (April 2017). Dr Samia Bano was a panel member on BBC Radio 4 Beyond Belief Pro- gramme on Sharia Councils on 20 September 2016. Professor Mashood Baderin was featured in the supplementary weekly pull-out ‘Lawyer’ in the Nigerian This Day Newspaper on 2 May 2017 as part of the SOAS Centenary event in Lagos, Nigeria. In the centre-page double spread interview, he answered questions on different issues including Nigeria’s anticorruption war, allegations of abuses in IDP Camps in North-Eastern Nigeria and the implications of the Nigerian government’s disobedience to court orders. Dr Aeyal Gross discussed his new book The Writing on the Wall: Rethinking the International Law of Occupation in a podcast for the Tel Aviv Review on TLV1. In other news, Professor Fareda Banda was invited by CEDAW and the OHCHR to participate in an expert group meeting on updating General Recommendation 19 of CEDAW on 9 February 2017. Essays written by the boys of Sutton Grammar as part of the SOAS leg of a joint British Council grant with Brandeis University in 2014, have appeared in an ebook produced by the British Council titled Bridging Voices 2013- 2016: Projects and Partners. In February 2017, Professor Lynn Welchman participated, together with Professor Ziba Mir-Hosseini (Professorial Research Associ- ate at CIMEL), in a roundtable meeting organised in Amman by UN Women and Musawah (the Global Network for Justice and Equality in the Muslim Family) with members of the Pal- estinian Shari`a Court Judiciary from the West Bank. The roundtable discussion was held under the working title New Directions in Islamic Legal Thought: Gender-Responsive Knowledge and Adjudication (see photo on page 1). Meanwhile, Dr Makeen Makeen has been appointed a member of the Standing Committee for Legal Affairs of the International Council of Museums [ICOM] to advise on the copyright issues facing museums. Dr Makeen’s mandate runs from 1 January 2017–31 December 2019. Dr Nimer Sultany was the Arab-American Educational Foundation Visiting Associate Professor in Arab Studies at the University of Houston during March–April 2017. Dr Sultany also visited Tunisia during February- March 2017 for field research related to his book project for Oxford University Press on the role of law in the Arab Spring. Finally, some noteworthy conferences have also taken place during the period covered by this newsletter. Professor Lynn Welchman, Ruba Salih and Elena Zambelli (CGS) co-convened with LMEI a conference at SOAS on 9 –10 December under the title ‘Gender and Generation in the Aftermath of the Uprisings: Political Visions, Desires, Movements in the Middle East and North Africa Today’. The conference was conceived as an additional activity towards the end of the POWER2YOUTH project involving partners from academic institutions in Europe and the South East Mediterranean. Colleagues from Gender Studies, Media Studies and Politics chaired sessions and a num- ber of School of Law postgraduates attended along with many others. The SOAS School of Law also financially supported the Public Interest Environmental Law (PIEL) Conference, an annual, student-led event that seeks to bring together students and professionals for a day of talks and panel discussions on a contemporary environmental law issues. It took place on 7 April 2017 and its focus was ‘Brexit and the Green Economy: What Now?’ Its organising committee included three SOAS LLM students who took lead posi- tions in organising this event: The secretary position was held by Rebecca Wembri, a current LLM (International Law) student. Alison Wade, a current LLM (Environmental Law) held the Speaker Coordinator position and the Chair was held by Tabea Wilkes, an LLM (International Law) student.

2 SOAS Arbitration in Africa Research Project

Dr Emilia Onyema

My research generally covers international arbitration with regional interests in Africa. Particularly I interrogate the growth (or lack) of international arbitration across the African continent. In the course of my research and writings, I realised there was an absence of what I have termed ‘African voices’ in international arbitration discourses and decided to further interrogate this. By ‘African voices’, I refer to the views of African judiciaries, arbitration academics and practitioners in shaping international arbitral jurisprudence. I designed a four-year research project (2015-2018) aimed at transforming and enhancing the use of arbitration as the dispute resolution of choice within the African continent. The research project itself is titled ‘Creating a Sustainable Culture of Arbitration as a Mechanism for Commercial Dispute Resolution in Africa’. Over the four-year period, the role, in the development of arbitration in Africa, of four clearly identified stakeholders will be examined. These four stakeholders are: arbitration institutions; judiciaries; states/governments; and arbitration practitioners. This research project has a dedicated website: https://www.researcharbitrationafrica.com/ The project includes a series of conferences being held in African countries with each hosted by an arbitration institution and with the vast majority of speakers drawn from the African continent. With my location in Lon- don and its obvious limitations, I decided to find partners preferably from different regions of the continent and Francophone Africa (for inclusiveness). I approached a retired Kenyan Court of Appeal Judge and active international arbitrator, Edward Torgbor, and Dr Jean-Alain Penda Matipe from Cameroon, to join this project as co- convenors of the conferences. They both accepted.

The SOAS Arbitration in Africa Conference Series In 2015, the Office of the General Counsel of the African Union Commission (AUC) hosted our first conference in the premises of the AUC in Addis Ababa. At this conference, we examined the role of arbitration institutions in the development of arbitration in Africa. Seventy-two people attended this conference. The major contribution of this conference to arbitration in Africa is my research on identifying and creating a list of 72 arbitration institutions operating in the continent. The International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) has done further work on the basis of this research. In addition, Kluwer in 2016 published a collection from our deliberations at this conference titledThe Transformation of Arbitration in Africa: the Role of Arbitral Institutions, which I edited. In 2016, our conference was hosted by the Lagos Court of Arbitration in Lagos. At this conference, we examined the role of the judiciary and how they can better support the development of arbitration in Africa. There were 133 attendees at our Lagos conference. I am currently editing a book (to be published by Kluwer) which interro- gates the attitude of courts in Africa towards arbitration. This year (2017) the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA) hosted our third arbitration conference which examined the role of governments (primarily legislative and executive) in the development of arbitration in Africa. This conference was attended by 177 people. At this conference also, a law firm in Cairo (as part of their contribution to this effort) offered a six weeks intern- ship in their arbitration practise to one African arbitration graduate through competitive selection. Our last conference in this series will be hosted by the Kigali International Arbitration Centre on 14-16 May 2018. At our Kigali conference we will examine the role of arbitration practitioners (in its broadest sense) in the development of arbitration in Africa.

3 EconoSocioLegal Inspiration terested in Sri Lankan development and World Bank policy, but I am utterly obsessed with broader projects that seek to re-embed law and economics back into the Clare Williams social sciences. My research takes an Economic Sociology of Law Listening to Radio 4’s Start the Week on Monday (ESL)-inspired framework to structure (empirically, ana- 1 May, I was struck by Kate Raworth’s passion for her lytically and normatively) and guide (micro, meso, mac- revisionist ‘doughnut economics’. This was a passion ro, meta) research at the interface of the legal and eco- that I can relate to, bound up in a project related to my nomic within the social. By capturing a broader range own, and that finds echoes in much of the research at of interactions and a plurality of interests, an ESL is well SOAS. I’ll set out some background about my research situated to challenge many of the criticisms of World and my experiences of SOAS and the Socio-Legal Stud- Bank doctrine, while also stressing the peculiarly social ies Association (SLSA) conference this year, and why nature of both law and economics. In addition to the I’ve become obsessed with the future of law and eco- usual, text-based explorations of an ESL, my approach- nomics within the social sciences. es have also included three-dimensional models of Despite feeling a little like the department grem- community along with graphical representations of an lin (I’m just finishing my fifth ESL (seen in the poster in the year of a part-time PhD at photo). Serendipitously, this SOAS), I have had the most segued perfectly with the theme wonderful academic year. I of the SLSA conference this took the plunge last October year; ‘Visions of the law’. and was elected Comms The conference, held in Officer to the Research Stu- Newcastle on 5–7 April, was as dents’ Association (RSA), the lively, busy and diverse as usual, body that represents PhD/ with over 400 papers presented. MPhil/MRes students at Highlights for me were the Pop- SOAS. I’ve loved the role, not Up Museum of Legal Objects only for the small amount of curated by Professor Perry- responsibility it has brought Kessaris (Kent) which was both a (mainly regarding mailing fun and engaging way of inter- lists), but for the countless acting with legal theory. I con- inspirational SOAS-ians that Clare Williams presenting her poster at SLSA tributed a Tureen to the muse- I’ve met over the past year, Conference 2017. Photo credit:Nataly Papadopulou um, which linked the Industrial both based in London and and Technological revolutions, dotted around the world on fieldwork. The research allowing a Polanyian exploration of the legal issues going on within the doctoral community at SOAS makes around the ‘gig economy’. The following morning, I it a very special environment, and I’ve had the oppor- joined the Methods and Methodologies stream, con- tunity to dive in to this head first. By coordinating doc- vened by Dr Petra Mahy (SOAS) and Dr Eleanor toral school events, training and online forums, and Pritchard (QMUL). The sessions covered a variety of also helping with the RSA Journal, I’ve had an overview methodologies and approaches, and I received some this year of both the breadth and depth of knowledge invaluable feedback on my approach to the embed- at SOAS, and of the amazing people that both work and dedness paradigm and how to frame this effectively. study here. More than that though, the opportunity (the My own doctoral journey, like most people’s, has utter luxury) to become immersed in an area of re- had its ups and downs. I was forced to radically rethink search for the purposes of a conference presentation my initial research proposal after becoming ill in 2012. was not only productive in the immediate sense of pre- The original plan had been to interview foreign inves- paring two papers and a poster, but has been a catalyst tors in Sri Lanka about their expectations and experi- for further writing. In addition to the growth of ences with the host state legal system, and use this da- EconoSocioLegal approaches, I’m also looking forward ta to challenge World Bank investment climate para- to exploring further the use of graphic design and visual digms. However, a wheelchair made this less than prac- methods for the communication of academic work, and tical, and I spent a significant amount of time trying to how this can assist in both developing and measuring reformat the project while also reformatting most oth- impact. er aspects of my life. Nevertheless, by focusing instead I tweet @_clare_williams, and Instagram on methodology, I’ve not only re-oriented the research, _clare_williams, and my videos are on YouTube at but gained a new obsession. It’s fair to say that I’m in- https://tinyurl.com/zf9qmvm

4 The In/Formal Constitution in Central Asia

Scott Newton

On the top left is a defaced portrait of Askar came together because we shared misgivings about the Akaev, first president of the Kyrgyz Republic, around reigning corruption paradigm. Our premise was that the time of his overthrow in the Tulip Revolution of informality does governing work, allocative work, juris- 2005. On the top right is a defaced portrait of the sec- dictional work and much more, and that informal gov- ond president of the Kyrgyz Republic, Kurmanbek Baki- ernance exhibits patterns, forms, and functions that cut ev, around the time of his overthrow five years after. across contexts. We approached the problem from an Both presidents were accused of rampant corruption. angle somewhat oblique to the other projects, in as- They did fall afoul of the Constitution—but not merely suming the functionality of informality rather than the the formal one. I’m currently exploring the “informal dysfunctionality of corruption. Constitution” in Central Asia in a research project re- We chose to compare a set of cases in East Africa sponding to a knotty question: Why do international (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda) with a set of cases donor-funded anti-corruption efforts typically fall in Central Asia and the Caucasus (fSU) (Kyrgyzstan, Ka- short? Are there successful or at least preferable ap- zakhstan, Georgia)—a stretch that not only reflected proaches and outcomes? our geographically and thematically diverse research DfID and the British Academy were keen to dis- interests but gave us the opportunity to examine very cover empirical evidence for what seemed to work and disparate contexts and to test whether (as we hypothe- what didn’t in the international drive to combat cor- sised) we could discern cross-cutting patterns and com- ruption. As a result together they launched the Anti- monalities of informal governance. Corruption Evidence Partnership last year, “a £3.6 mil- I’m the only lawyer not just in our project but lion initiative to support leading international research among the entire field of researchers on the eight pro- teams to research and identify the most successful jects—which in itself says something about the way ways of addressing corruption in developing coun- corruption is understood. Non-lawyers operate with a tries.” A total of eight projects was funded, most of common misconception about legal rules and legal or- them involving cross-institutional research teams and ders and imagine they are rather more robust than investigating a range of issues such as civil service re- lawyers do. Outsiders to any complex order see the form, parliamentary oversight, and “islands of integri- formality but miss the informality—they identify the ty”. order with its visible, published rules but miss what’s Representing the SOAS School of Law, I have unwritten. As a result they are inclined to mistake ma- teamed up with Alena Ledeneva, Professor of Politics nipulation or creative application of the rules for de- and Society at the UCL School of Slavonic and East Eu- parture from or disdain for them. Informal allocation or ropean Studies (SSEES), and Claudia Baez-Camargo, of transaction is not cheating or beating the written rules, the Basel Institute of Governance, on the project ‘Infor- but playing by the rules of the larger system which en- mal Governance and Corruption - Transcending the compasses both written and unwritten. Principal Agent and Collective Action Paradigms.’ We Fresh from my book The Constitutional Systems

5 The In/Formal Constitution in Central Asia (continued)

of the Independent Central Asian States, I want to develop the idea of an informal—better “in/formal” Constitution. Formality and informality are not dis- junct but mutually constitutive. They exhibit a complex topological relation—something like a yin-yang diagram. That is, formality is inside informality (informality is structured) and informality is inside formality (rules are plastic in application). That’s why I prefer to think about an overarching concept of “in/ formality.” Mnookin and Kornhauser famously wrote of “bargaining in the shadow of the law” (in the context of divorce). One could just as readily speak of “applying law in the shadow of the bargain”. And the shadow is a complex one, with umbra and penumbra. Sometimes the shadow is direct and dark, sometimes lighter and filtered. In Kyrgyzstan our local researcher is exploring the persisting significance of affective ties (kin and clan) in structuring social and political networks and transactions. I’m particularly interested in seeing how identities themselves are dynamic and malleable, and respond to changing incentives: people adopt and adapt ‘transactional identities’ to fashion claims to resources. In Kazakhstan, our local researcher is examining shifting and similarly opportunistic business networks, which form, collapse and reform in the face of changing incentives and disincentives, a complex scheme of in/formality of which the anti-corruption regime itself is a vital part. We will be harvesting data through the end of the summer, as from the comparator East African cases as well, and then tackling the comparison, within the two regions and then between them. It’s early days yet, but we’re very excited by what’s emerging. As it happens, another SOAS team, in Economics and headed by Mushtaq Khan, has received a separate grant under a different DfID ACE programming line, and we’re meeting with them regularly to exchange ideas and findings, further enlarging our field of comparison and enriching our analysis!

6 On Military Law, Melbourne and General My time at the APCML therefore afforded me the op- Melchett portunity to immerse myself within the literature on these “real courts”, which deal with cases of discipli-

nary and criminal conduct by military personnel. My Dr Kate Grady research into military law falls into two broad strands.

The first focuses on the legal aspects of misconduct by The end of criminal law re-sit marking last year sig- UN military peacekeepers. Whilst in Melbourne, I gave nalled the arrival of the academic Holy Grail: two con- a seminar on my research into data on allegations of secutive terms of research leave. So I packed my bags sexual exploitation and abuse committed by those and hauled myself to Melbourne Law School, where peacekeepers (see K Grady, ‘Sex, Statistics, Peace- the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law (APCML) had keepers and Power: UN Data on Sexual Exploitation kindly agreed to host me as a visiting scholar (for and Abuse and the Quest For Legal Reform’ (2016) 79 which I owe them a debt of gratitude). Former French (6) Modern Law Review 931) and spent the remainder Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau once reportedly of my time working on my forthcoming book on said, “[i]t is enough to add ‘military’ to a word to make peacekeeper misconduct. it lose its meaning. Thus military justice is no justice, military music is no music.” What, then, of military For the second term of my research leave, I was back law? in London where I spent time examining the other strand of my research, both geographically and legally In the US, military law exists as a specific scholarly dis- closer to home since it focuses on offences committed cipline but one would be hard-pushed to say the same by UK military personnel. This issue most recently and of the UK where expertise in this field – amongst aca- publicly raised its ugly head with the appeal of Alexan- demics and practitioners alike – is more limited. For der Blackman whose murder conviction was substitut- some, the extent of knowledge of the military justice ed for one of manslaughter on the grounds of dimin- system perhaps goes no further than the famous ished responsibility for the killing of a wounded Af- Blackadder episode, Corporal Punishment (BBC, Black- ghan insurgent. Possessed of remarkable legal insight, adder Goes Forth, Episode 2 (1989)). There, the epony- Blackman commented to his colleagues in the immedi- mous protagonist faces court martial for disobeying ate aftermath of the shooting, “Obviously, this doesn’t orders and a (legally dubious) charge of murdering go anywhere, fellas. I’ve just broke the Geneva Con- General Melchett’s beloved pet pigeon Speckled Jim. vention.” (see K Grady, ‘Comment on Blackman [2017] As the trial commences, Blackadder portrays some EWCA Crim 190’ [2017] Criminal Law Review 557, understandable concern about the extent to which the forthcoming). In the court of public opinion and aca- court will afford him a fair trial, particularly since Gen- demic commentary, battle lines have been drawn be- eral Melchett appears to be wearing all four hats of tween those who see the outcome of this case as just, prosecution witness, judge, jury and executor. The and those inclined to alignment with Clemenceau’s court’s distain for due process is evident from the view. As this case illustrates, as misconduct by UN start: peacekeepers retains its place in the news headlines, and as the UK military remains under preliminary ex- Captain Darling for the prosecution: May it please the amination at the International Criminal Court, there is court, as this is an open and shut case, I beg leave to still much to ponder about the implications of adding bring a private prosecution against the defence coun- the word ‘military’ to the word ‘law’. Disappointingly, the generous space and time for pondering provided sel for wasting the court’s time. by research leave now seems to be over since that Judge General Melchett: Granted. Defence counsel is criminal law marking has come back round again. Nev- fined fifty pounds for turning up. ertheless, I expect completing my book on peacekeep- Lieutenant George for the defence: This is fun! This is er misconduct and a new research project on crimes just like a real court! by the UK military to keep me occupied for many

months ahead.

7 Research Centre Activities ence and Economics. The papers presented were: Sujith Koonan (SOAS), ‘Manual scavenging: Revisiting Centre for Human Rights Law (CHRL): the role of evidence’; Birsha Ohdedar (SOAS), ‘Climate Change and Water: How Law and Policy Responds to CHRL hosted the following seminars: the ‘Uncertain Certainties’ of Climate Change’, Shomo- na Khanna (Supreme court lawyer), ‘Historical wrongs  Pauline Endres de Oliveira, ‘Syrians Welcome? Con- and forest rights: the mythology of scientific evidence’, trasting Approaches to Syrian Asylum Seekers in Philippe Cullet, ‘Inter-Sectoral Allocation of Water: Germany and the United Kingdom’, 2 December Towards an Evidence-Based Legal Framework’. 2016 The Law, Environment and Development Centre or-  David Deng, ‘Conflict, Transition and the Elusive ganised its Tenth Annual Public Evening Seminar Se- Search for Justice in South Sudan’, Discussant: Dr ries, which included the following seminars: Rachel Ibreck, 24 February 2017  Sujith Koonan (SOAS), ‘Right to Sanitation in India:  Kyra Hild, ‘Kidnap, Secret Flights and Torture: The from Formal Recognition to Realisation’, 17 Novem- International Fight Back against the CIA’s Extraordi- ber 2016 nary Rendition Programme and its Repercussions  Gillian Lobo (ClientEarth), ‘The Role of Litigation in for the new US Administration’, 10 March 2017 Combating Climate Change’, 1 December 2016  ‘Strategies for Human Rights Protection in Sudan:  Salil Tripathi and Tim Edwards, The Bhopal Disaster Challenges, Gaps and New Directions, Roundtable, - Screening of “Bhopali” and Panel Discussion, 2 20 April 2017 December 2016  ‘Rule of Law or Rule by Law? Myanmar’s Transition  Christoph Schwarte (Legal Response Initiative), to “Disciplined” Democracy’, Panel discussion with ‘Transboundary Environmental Harm and Extra- Dr Patrick Meehan, Ms Vani Sathisan, and Mr Fran- territorial Human Rights Obligations’, 12 January cis Wade, 28 April 2017 2017

 Stephen Minas (King's College London), The Centre for Human Rights Law has also made the “Sustainable Energy for All”? Technology Mobilisa- following submissions: tion and the Human Rights Challenges of Energy Comments by the Centre for Human Rights Law on the Poverty and Pollution’, 2 February 2017 Draft Revised General Comment on the Implementa-  Farhana Yamin (CEO, Track 0 & UCL), The Role of tion of article 3 of the Convention in the context of Strategic Litigation in Implementing the Paris article 22, March 2017 Agreement’, 9 March 2017 The Government’s Proposed Derogation from the  Lovleen Bhullar (SOAS), ‘Realization of the ‘Human’ ECHR, Written Evidence submitted by Dr Lutz Oette Rights to Water and Sanitation …and What about and Elizabeth Stubbins Bates on behalf of the Centre the Environment?’, 15 March 2017 for Human Rights Law, March 2017  HU Yuanqiong (SOAS), ‘Access to Science and Phar- maceutical Patent Production: Incoherence, De- Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law bates and the Role of Expertise’, 23 March 2017 (CIMEL): On 29-30 November 2016, CIMEL co-convened with Centre for East Asian Law (CEAL): the Academy of Finland a workshop on ‘Wellbeing of Transnational Muslim Families: Marriage, Law and CEAL hosted several seminars this academic year, as Gender’. The lead organiser was Dr Mulki Al-Sharmani, follows: Research Associate at CIMEL, who was visiting SOAS from Finland. Other CIMEL colleagues involved in the  Jed Kroncke (Sao Paolo), ‘China and the Death of workshop were Lynn Welchman, Samia Bano and Ziba American Comparative Law’, 10 March 2017 Mir-Hosseini.  Michael Ng (HKU), ‘Rule of Law in Hong Kong Histo- ry Demythologised: Student Umbrella Movement of The Law, Environment and Development Centre 1919’, 23 January 2017 (LEDC):  Dr Kerstin Steiner (Monash University), ‘The Neverending Story: Hudud Laws in Southeast Asia’, The Law, Environment and Development Centre or- 13 January 2017 (held in conjunction with CIMEL) ganised a panel at the LASSnet Conference 2016,  He Jiahong (Beijing), ‘Back from the Dead - Wrong- Fourth Edition, Thinking with Evidence: Seeking Cer- ful Convictions and Criminal Justice in China’, 19 tainty, Making Truth, New Delhi, 10-12 December October 2017 2016 on Evidence in Environmental Law: Beyond Sci-

8 The Rule of Law in Thailand Project (sponsored by CEAL) has also continued this year, and has hosted the following seminars:

 Anon Chawalawan (Head at Freedom of Expression  Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang (PhD Candidate, Uni- Documentation Center at iLaw) and Cod Satrusayang versity of Bristol Law School), ‘Thailand’s Buddhism in (Former Reuters Senior Politics Correspondent), ‘After Constitutions’, 29 November 2016 the Coup: Freedom of Expression in Thailand’, 7  Rawin Leelapatana (PhD candidate, University of Bris- March 2017 tol Law School), ‘The Influence of Foreign Legal Phi-  Professor Peter Leyland (SOAS) and Verapat Pari- losophies on Sarit Thanarat’s Thai-style Democracy yawong (SOAS), ‘Thailand’s Rice Subsidy and the Rule and Today’s Challenge’, 28 October 2016 of Law’, 9 December 2016

Seminar on ‘After the Coup: Freedom of Expression in Thailand’, SOAS, 7 March 2017

SOAS School of Law Hosts ‘Constitutional Systems of the World’ Launch Event On 1 March 2017 SOAS Director, Valerie Amos, welcomed guests to a triple book launch and themed discussion in the Brunei Gallery lecture theatre which was also supported by Hart Publishing and the UK Constitutional Law Association. Since its inception in 2007, the 24 volumes in the Constitutional Systems of the World series (founding editors Peter Leyland (SOAS) and Andrew Harding (NUS)) has become internationally recognised as an invaluable re- source in the field of comparative constitutional law. The latest volume, Constitutional Systems of the Independent Central Asia States by Scott Newton, contrib- utes a ground breaking comparative analysis of the diverse and dynamic constitutional landscape of five nations which were formerly part of the Soviet Union: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan. Constitutionalism and Legal Change in Myanmar comprises a collection of essays by a team of expert scholars edited by Andrew Harding (NUS but formerly of SOAS) and Khin Khin Oo. This book evaluates aspects of the reform process since the Myanmar’s Constitution of 2008. It contains highly topical chapters on the reform process itself, leadership under the constitution, the electoral process, Burmese Federalism, judicial power, the jurisprudence of the of the Constitutional Tribunal and Human Rights Protection. Peter Leyland’s Constitution of the United Kingdom published in 2016 is widely acknowledged as a concise but also authoritative analysis of the contemporary UK constitution. Sebastian Payne, President of the UK Constitutional Law Association, chaired the session. The presentations were an opportunity for the authors and editors to set out the main themes while also alluding to the particular challenges of writing each of these books against a backdrop of rapidly evolving constitutional change.

SOAS Director Baroness Valerie Amos welcomes guests to the ‘Constitutional Systems of the World’ launch.

9 New Publications and Other Written Research Output

Bano, Samia (2017) (ed.) Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes: Women, Media- tion and Religious Arbitration. Brandeis University Press.

Bano, Samia (2017) ‘Introduction: Women, Mediation, and Religious Arbitration: Thinking Through Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes’ in Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes: Women, Mediation and Religious Arbitration, edited by Samia Bano. Brandeis University Press.

Bano, Samia (2017) ‘Agency, Autonomy, and Rights: Muslim Women and Alternative Dispute Resolution in Britain’ in Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes: Women, Mediation and Religious Arbitration, edited by Samia Bano. Brandeis University Press.

Bastaki, Jinan (2017) ‘The Legacy of the 1951 Refugee Convention and Palestinian Refugees: Multiple Displace- ments, Multiple Exclusions’, Berkeley Journal of Middle Eastern & Islamic Law 8(1):1–21.

Beck, Gunnar (2017) ‘The European Court of Justice is not an Impartial Court and has no Role to Play in Post-Brexit EU-UK Relations’, Judicial Power Project, Policy Exchange, 7 May 2017.

Beck, Gunnar (2016) ‘The Macro Level: The Structural Impact of General International Law on EU Law: The Court of Justice of the EU and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties’, Yearbook of European Law 35(1): 484- 512.

Beck, Gunnar and Hans-Detlef Horn (Universität Marburg: Schritsatz), Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen die Mitwirkung der Bundesbank und das Unterlassen der Bundesregierung und des Deutschen Bundestages jeglicher Hinwirkung auf die Aufhebung und Begrenzung der innerstaatlichen Auswirkungen der Beschlüsse des Rates der Europäischen Zentralbank vom 4. September 2014, 2. Oktober 2014, 15. Oktober 2014 und 22. Januar 2015, Part 1 (133 pages), London/Marburg/Lahn 3/9/2015 and Part 2 (27 pages) London/Marburg/ Lahn 13/11/2016.

Beck, Gunnar, R Ekins, J Finnis et al., Rights after Brexit: Submission to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, 10 October 2016. Beck, Gunnar, ‘The 1951 Refugees Convention and Improved Migration Policy and Border Control’, Written and Oral Submissions to the ECR Working Group on Asylum and Refugees Law, European Parliament, Brussels, 15 November 2016. Beck, Gunnar, ‘The 1951 Refugees Convention, the EU’s Dublin System and the Migration Crisis’, Written and Oral Submissions to the ECR Working Group on Asylum and Refugees Law, European Parliament, Brussels, 8 March 2016. Belder, Richard de (2017) ‘The Form over Substance Debate in Islamic Finance: Is Aligning Islamic Finance More Proactively with the Ethical Finance Space the Way Forward?’ published in Nick Foster’s SOAS Law of Islamic Finance Working Papers Series.

Caldwell, Ernest (2017) ‘Widening the Constitutional Gap in China and Taiwan: History, Reform, and the Control Yuan’, University of Illinois Law Review [2017](2):739–766.

Cullet, Philippe (2017) ‘Water Law in India’, in Routledge Handbook of Asian Law, edited by Christoph Antons, 323- 338. Abingdon: Routledge.

Cullet, Philippe (2017) ‘Governing Water to Foster Equity and Conservation: Need for New Legal Instruments’, Eco- nomic & Political Weekly 51/53 (31 December 2016).

10 Cullet, Philippe (2016) ‘Differential Treatment in Environmental Law: Addressing Critiques and Conceptualizing the Next Steps’, Transnational Environmental Law 5(2):305–328.

Grady, Kate (2016) ‘Sex, Statistics, Peacekeepers and Power: UN Data on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and the Quest for Legal Reform’, Modern Law Review, 79 (6): 931–960.

Gross, Aeyal (2017) The Writing on the Wall: Rethinking the International Law of Occu- pation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Heathcote, Gina (2017) ‘Women and Children and Elephants as Justification for Force’, Journal on the Use of Force and International Law4(1): 1–16.

Heathcote, Gina (2017) ‘LAWs, UFOs AND UAVs: Feminist Encounters with the Law of Armed Conflict’ in Imagining Law: Essays in Conversation with Judith Gardam, edited by Dale Stephens and Paul Barbie. Adelaide: Univer- sity of Adelaide Press.

Heathcote, Gina (2016) ‘Fragmented Feminisms: Critical Feminist Thinking in the Post-Millennium Era’ in Interna- tional Law and ... (Select Proceedings of the European Society of International Law 2014), edited by August Reinisch, Mary E. Footer and Christina Binder. Hart Publishing.

Leyland, Peter (2017) ‘Referendums, Constitutional Reform and the Perils of Popular Sovereignty’, Italian Law Jour- nal [2017] (Special Issue on ‘The 2016 Italian Constitutional Referendum: Origins, Stakes and Outcomes’): 121 –131.

Leyland, Peter (2016) ‘The Evolution of the Multi-Levelled Administrative State in the United Kingdom and The De- velopment of Channels of Constitutional Accountability’ in Servizi Pubblici, Diritti Fondamentali, Con- stituzionalismo Europeo, edited by Emilio Castorina, 61–87. Napoli: Editoriale Scientifica.

Mahy, Petra (2016) ‘The Functional Approach in Comparative Socio-Legal Research: Reflections based on a Study of Plural Work Regulation in Australia and Indonesia’, International Journal of Law in Context12(4):420 –436.

Makeen, Makeen (2016) ‘Moral Rights’ [Chapter 27] in Moral Rights, edited by Gillian Davies and Kevin Garnet, 849 –871. London: Sweet & Maxwell.

Menski, Werner (with Federica Sona) (2017) ‘Author and Subject Index to IANL Vol 30 (2016), Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law 31(1):77–105.

Menski, Werner (2017) ‘Globalisation and the New Utopia of Multicultural/Intercultural and Plurilegal states: Some Methodological Reminders’ in Lo Stato Interculturale: Une Nuova Eutopia? Edited by Silvia Bagni, 134-159. Bologna: Dipartimento di Scienze giuridiche. Also in: AMSActa, Alma Mater Studiorum, Digital Library, pp. 120–143, and in Colección Clasico del Derecho Constitucional, Instituto de Estudios Constitucionales del Es- tado de Querétaro, Mexico.

11 Oette, Lutz, ‘Attacks on Civil Society in Turkey, Human Rights and Solidarity’, opendemocracy, 17 November 2016.

Oette, Lutz, ‘Trump’s Embrace of Torture is Irresponsible and Explosive’, The Conversation, 31 January 2017.

Oette, Lutz, ‘Injustice is the Foundation of the New Turkish State’, opendemocracy, 25 March 2017 (Turkish version published on bianet, 27 March 2017).

Sharma, Kanika (2017) ‘Mother India: The Role of the Maternal Figure in Establishing Legal Subjectivity’, Law and Critique. Online from April 2017.

Sultany, Nimer (2017) ‘The Legal Structures of Subordination: Israeli Law and the Palestinian Minority’ in Israel and its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State, edited by Nadim N. Rouhana and Sahar S. Hunei- di, 191–237. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Welchman, Lynn (2016) ‘A Historiography of Islamic Family Law’, in The Oxford Handbook on Islamic Law, edited by Anver Emon and Rumee Ahmed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Welchman, Lynn (2016) ‘Human Rights, Law and Politics: A Reflection on Human Rights Work in the Middle East and North Africa’ in The Routledge Handbook on Human Rights and the Middle East and North Africa, edited by Anthony Tidrao Chase, 502–11. London and New York: Routledge.

D. Banerjee, Bharat Mata in Shackles, 1941. Image courtesy of the Priya Paul Collection. Discussed in Kanika Sharma’s paper on Mother India.

12 Conference Participation and Other Presentations

Baderin, Mashood, chaired and gave the opening speech at the SOAS/UFH Joint-Centenary Jabavu Lecture held at the University of Fort Hare, Alice Campus, South Africa on 29th March 2017. The Lecture titled: ‘Constituting the Nation, Beyond the Constitution: A South African Future?’ was delivered by Professor Njabulo Ndebele, Chairman of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg.

Banda, Fareda, participated in, and gave a presentation on gender equality and participation in political life at the SOAS-run Mo Ibrahim Governance School, Cape Town, 23–31 March 2017.

Banda, Fareda, delivered the Third Annual Patrick Thornberry Lecture in Human Rights on ‘Gender, Race and Hu- man Rights: From Margin to Centre with Patrick Thornberry’, Keele University, 26 April 2017.

Bano, Samia, ‘Resistance, Agency and Intersectionality: Reconceptualising the “Sharia Law” Debates and the Experi- ence of British Muslim Women’, presented at ‘Muslim Immigration in Europe: Masculinity, Politics and Law’, University College, Cork, Ireland, 23 September 2016.

Bano, Samia, ‘The Sharia Inquiries and Muslim Religious Arbitration in the UK’ presented at Family Law Seminar on Sharia Councils, Law Society, London, 13 October 2016.

Bano, Samia, ‘Gender Equality and Religious Freedom in Muslim Family Law Matters in the UK: Bridging the Un- bridgeable?’ presented at ‘Religious Freedom in Family Matters’, Lord Speaker’s Office in Parliament, 17 Oc- tober 2016.

Bano, Samia, ‘Critical Muslim Feminist Methodologies and British Muslim Women’s Identity in Family LawDe- bates’, presented at conference on ‘Legal Pluralism in Personal Status Law: Comparative and Historical Per- spectives’, University of Gottingen, Germany, 28–29 October 2016.

Bano, Samia, presentation of a critique of Karin van Marles Paper: ‘Welcoming other ways of knowing and being’, Diversity and Legal Reasoning Workshop, Queen Mary Law School, 23 November 2016.

Bano, Samia, Commentator and discussant of Panel Papers at a workshop on WellBeing of Transnational Muslim Families: Marriage, Law and Gender (Organised by University of Finland and CIMEL, SOAS), SOAS University of London, 29 November 2016.

Bano, Samia, ‘The Politics of Culture and Muslim Family Law in the UK: Analysing the role of Cultural experts and the rise of Islamic Legal Services’ presented at EURO-EXPERT: Cultural Expertise in Socio-Legal Studies and History, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, 16–17 December 2016.

Bano, Samia, ‘Muslims as the “Other”: Islamophobia, Politics and the Law’ presented to Dutch Ministries of Civil Servants for a course on Islam in Europe and Americas, Leiden University, the Netherlands, 16 January 2017.

Bano, Samia, discussant and facilitator of three panel paper presentations on ‘Unregistered Muslim Marriages: Regulations and Contestations’, DeMontfort University, Leicester, 24–25 April 2017.

Bastaki, Jinan, ‘Islamophobia and the end of Liberalism?’ presented at 8th Annual Islamophobia Conference, UC Berkeley, 21–23 April 2017.

Beck, Gunnar, ‘Die Eurozone als Wilder Westen für die EZB - Vom rechtlosen Treiben der EZB und den Gefahren für die soziale Marktwirtschaft und gesellschaftliche Stabilität’, presented at Industrie-Club Düsseldorf, 16 Feb- ruary 2017.

Ercanbrack, Jonathan, floor respondent, 8th Malaysia Securities Exchange, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Roundtable, Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, 25–26 March 2017.

Ercanbrack, Jonathan, presenter at General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions, Roundtable

13 meeting, ‘Impact of the Legal Framework on Islamic Financial Services Industry Development, Manama, Bah- rain, 2 April 2017.

Foster, Nick, ‘How Can Law Help? Law and Risk Sharing in Islamic Finance’, presented at the 8th SC-OCIS Roundtable (organised by the Securities Commission Malaysia and the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies) on ‘Creating Shared Values Through Risk Sharing’, Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, 25–26 March 2017.

Grady, Kate, ‘The Challenges of “Zero Tolerance” Policies’, presented by invitation, at ‘The Future of “Zero Toler- ance” Policies in Peacekeeping’ Workshop, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne, 21 April 2017.

Heathcote, Gina, was Guest Speaker on ‘Women's Rights are Human Rights’ at International Women's Initiative Gala Event on Safe Birth- ing, London, 28 October 2016.

Heathcote, Gina, ‘Anti-Militarisation, Anti- Coloniality, Disruptive listening and Security Council Resolution 2242’, presented at the Global Society Workshop on Gender and Security, University of Kent, 13 January 2017.

Heathcote, Gina, was Keynote Speaker 'Gender Studies as Interdisciplinary, Transdisciplinary and Crossdisciplinary: Cyborgs, Non-humans and Feminist Utopias in Research Design’, and Expert Panelist, at the event ‘Designing Gender Research: Method and Challenges’, Transitional Justice Insti- tute, Ulster University, 22 February 2017.

Heathcote, Gina, ‘Feminist Dialogues on International Law’ presented at IntLawGrrls! Blog Tenth Anniversary Con- ference, University of Georgia, Athens, Atlanta, 3 March 2017.

Hu, Yuanqiong, ‘Groups, Meanings and the Dynamics of (Re-)Construction: Analysis of the Discourse on Patent and Health before the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patent’, presented at the Intellectual Property stream, Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Annual Conference, University of Newcastle, 5–7 April 2017.

Hu, Yuanqiong, ‘Access to Science and Pharmaceutical Patent Production: Incoherence, Debates and the Role of Expertise’, presented at LEDC Seminar Series, SOAS, London, 23 March 2017.

Mahy, Petra and Naomi Creutzfeldt, ‘Informality and the Media in Consumer Protection in Indonesia and Turkey’ presented at Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference, University of Newcastle, 5–7 April 2017.

Mahy, Petra, ‘Legal Consciousness and Plural Work Regulation in Indonesia’ presented at workshop on ‘From Col- lective Legal Consciousness to Legal Consciousness of Collective Dissent?’ Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Uni- versity of Oxford, 19–20 April 2017.

Makeen, Makeen, ‘Defects in the Moral Rights Regime of Egypt, UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait’ presented at the conference on ‘Moral Rights and New Technologies: Authorship, Attribution and Integrity in a Digital World’, Uni- versity of Glasgow, 31 March–1 April 2017.

Oette, Lutz, presentation on the Absolute Prohibition of Torture, Panel on State Security, Torture and the Law, Cambridge University European Society and Centre of Governance and Human Rights, Cambridge, 2 March 2017.

14 Ohdedar, Birsha, ‘Examining the Relationship Between Water and Climate Change Science and Law: reflections from the lower Damodar valley in West Bengal, India’, presented at the ‘Early Careers Workshop on Environ- mental Law’, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 29 April 2017.

Ohdedar, Birsha, presented as part of a Panel on “Institutions and Water Laws”, WWF & South Asia University Workshop on Water Governance and Diplomacy, Chandigarh, India, 27–28 February 2017.

Ohdedar, Birsha, ‘Law and Hydro-Climatic Evidence: How Law and Policy Understands the “Uncertain Certainties” of a Changing Climate’, presented at LASSnet Conference, India Habitat Centre, Delhi, India, 11 December 2016.

Suresh, Mayur, ‘Types of Terror: A Brief History of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 1908’ presented at a workshop titled ‘South Asian Legal History, Beyond Boundaries’ co-organised by the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and the National Academy for Legal Studies and Research, Hyderabad, 7–8 December 2016.

Suresh, Mayur, co-organised a panel at the Law and Social Sciences Network conference titled ‘Police-effect: Struc- ture, Ideology and the Everyday’ and presented a paper titled ‘A Deadly Embrace: the Place of the Police in a Terrorism Trial’, New Delhi, 10–12 December 2016.

Suresh, Mayur, ‘There’s Nothing More Public than Privacy: Sodomy Law Judgments and the Shifting Boundaries of Private Space’, presented at the Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS, 23 February 2017.

Suresh, Mayur, ‘Voice Beyond a Concept: Law as Opera’ presented at Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Scienc- es and Humanities, University of Cambridge, 6 March 2017.

Tan, Carol, ‘Quantum Leap: Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong Court Judgments’, presented at Asian Law Centre, School of Law, University of Washington, 9 November 2016.

This SOAS School of Law Research Newsletter was edited by Dr Petra Mahy.