SOAS School of Law Research Newsletter Issue 11, April—October

SOAS School of Law

Research Newsletter Issue 11, April—October 2016

Research News from Staff and Students Contents The School of Law congratulates three of our students who have Research News 1-2 recently completed their PhDs, and also congratulates their supervi- New Staff Research Profiles 3 sors. Vishal Vora’s thesis on ‘The Islamic Marriage Conundrum: Reg- ister or Recognise? The Legal Consequences of the Nikah in England Peter Muchlinski: A Few Words 4-5 and Wales’ was passed in September. His supervisors were Martin Workshop on Indonesian Mi- 5 Lau and Peter Muchlinski. Sham Arun-Qayyum was also awarded grant Workers his PhD on the topic of ‘People, not Societies, are Multicultural: An Interdisciplinary Study Examining how Muslims in Britain are Negoti- New PhD Students 6 ating Overlapping (Legal) Norms, Identities and Traditions’. His PhD was supervised by Werner Menski. Virginie Rouas passed her viva Towards an Academic Ora et 7-8 without any corrections. Her topic was ‘Comparative Analysis of Hu- Labora man Rights Litigation against Multinationals in France and the Neth- erlands’. Virginie was supervised by Peter Muchlinski and Nick Fos- Research Centre Activities 8 ter. Noryati Haji Ibrahim, supervised by Ian Edge, was awarded her Studying Law and Constitutions 9 doctorate on ‘Divorce Related Issues: A Study of Financial Settle- ment under Muslim Family Law in Brunei’. Upcoming Research Events 10 Two of our staff members, Dr Vanja Hamzić and Dr Nimer Sultany, New Publications 11-12 have recently been awarded prestigious research fellowships. Dr Vanja Hamzić was awarded an annual Membership at the School Conference Presentations 13-15 of Social Science in the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, for the academic year 2016-17. This honour comes with a US$50,000 grant given to SOAS to cover one year of Dr Hamzić’s teaching and administrative duties (see pages 7-8 for more details of Dr Hamzić’s experiences at Princeton). Dr Nimer Sultany was awarded a British Academy Mid- Career Fellowship of almost £100,000 and will spend the 2016-2017 year pursuing a research project on ‘Revolution, Constitutionalism and Religion after the Arab Spring’ (see page 9 for details of this project). Both Dr Hamzić and Dr Sultany have also been promoted to Senior Lecturer in the SOAS School of Law.

‘The Gendered Imaginaries of Crisis in International Law,’ agora organised by Emily Jones, Dr Gina Heathcote and colleagues at the European Society for International Law (ESIL) Annual Conference, Riga, Latvia, 9 September 2016 (see page 2).

1 Research News (continued)

Other staff members have also held visiting positions recently. Dr Kate Grady was a Visiting Scholar at the Asia Pa- cific Centre for Military Law, School of Law, University of Melbourne, during September and October 2016. Dr Petra Mahy was a visiting researcher at the Department of Business Law and Taxation, Monash University, Australia, throughout July 2016. Petra has also had her Associate Fellowship at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, extended for another year.

In publishing news, Dr Catherine Jenkins and Dr Lutz Oette have taken over as Co-General Editors of the Journal of African Law. Dr Vanja Hamzić launched his new book Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Muslim World: History, Law and Vernacular Knowledge (London: I.B. Tauris, 2016; Islamic South Asia series) at the Law and Society Associa- tion’s annual conference in New Orleans, on 2 June 2016. The book was also previously launched at the University in Melbourne, on 14 December 2015, and at SOAS on 9 March 2016. Professor Fareda Banda was featured in the Leverhulme Trust’s 2015 Annual Review. The Trust celebrated the 20th anniversary of the launch of its early career research fellowships by catching up with 10 people who have benefitted from the scheme. Fareda was one of the 10 people featured in the ‘what happened next’ section. Fareda also recently helped the World Bank Gender team with their questionnaire for the next Women, Business and Law report.

Over the past six months, our staff and students have been involved in a number of thought-provoking research events, of which just a few are mentioned here. On 26 August 2016, Dr Yoriko Otomo organised a workshop on ‘Contract Law: New Directions’ with contract law scholars from across the UK meeting to discuss their research and a variety of contract law teaching issues (see photograph below). The workshop resulted in changes to teaching, the creation of an online archive of shared material, and agreement on a follow-up workshop in a year's time. Dr Otomo also co-organised an event on ‘Making Milk: The Past, Present and Future of Our Primary Food’ at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, on 27-28 May 2016, which was attended by the world’s leading scholars on human and animal milk. Dr Gina Heathcote and Emily Jones, together with Dr Bérénice Schramm (SOAS Centre for Gender Studies), Dr Troy Lavers and Dr Loveday Hodson (University of Leicester) organised an agora entitled ‘The Gendered Imaginaries of Crisis in International Law’ at the European Society of International Law (ESIL) annual conference on 9 September 2016 (see photograph on page 1). Finally, Professor Diamond Ashiagbor organised a two-day workshop on ‘Reimagining Labour Law for Development: Informal Work in the Global North and the Global South’ on 15-16 September. This was the Society for Legal Scholars Annual Seminar for 2016, and it was well-attended by a number of leading labour law and development scholars from around the world.

‘Contract Law: New Directions’, workshop organised by Dr Yoriko Otomo at SOAS on 26 August 2016

2 New Staff Research Profiles

Dr Kanika Sharma has joined SOAS as a half-time Senior Teaching Fellow. She obtained her PhD in Law from Birkbeck College, University of London, in 2016. She came to law through an interdisciplinary route involving degrees in journalism, political studies, and conflict transformation and peace building. Her interest in law was sparked through an examination of historic political trials in India, and she submitted an MPhil thesis on the Gandhi Murder Trial at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. In her research, Kanika uses postcolonial and constitutional theories to exam- ine the use of images and architecture by law. As part of this research, she has organised two Law and Image symposiums at Birkbeck – Law and Image: Picturing a Theory (2015) and Law and Image II: Representing the Limits of the Nation State (2016). Her work on the use of architecture and images in political trials has been published as ‘Spectacular Justice: Aesthetics and Power in the Gandhi Murder Trial’ in Awol Allo (ed.), The Courtroom as a Space of Resistance (Ashgate 2015). Kanika’s research also uses theories of psychoanalytic jurisprudence, and she is particularly interested in the relation between law and culture and the formation of the legal subject in colonial and post-colonial contexts. She disputes the central position accorded to the father-as-lawmaker by traditional Western psychoanalysis, and instead seeks to recover the role of the maternal figure, especially the figure of the mother-as-nation, in establishing legal subjectivity. A piece based on her PhD is due to be published in 2017, titled ‘Mother India: The Role of the Maternal Figure in establishing Legal Subjectivity' in Law and Critique. Since finishing her PhD, Kanika is currently working on a feminist critique of Indian equity and Hindu family trust laws. Dr Muin Boase has also joined SOAS School of Law as a half-time Senior Teaching Fellow. Since 2015, he has co-convened, a course on ‘International Law: Contemporary Issues’ for the SOAS summer school with Dr Gina Heathcote. He teaches and lectures on the International Protection of Human Rights and teaches ECHR/EU law. He previously taught ‘Public International Law with Special Reference to Asia and Africa’ and convened seminars for the course ‘International Law and Global Orders’. Muin spent the past two and a half years (2014-2016) working in international commercial arbitration as a Research Assistant to Sir Bernard Rix of 20 Essex Street. He is formally appointed as a Tribunal Secretary in an LCIA arbitration concerning a matter of contract interpretation in an ener- gy dispute. He has also carried out research for a number of other cases before the English courts involving state immunity, diplomatic immunity and human rights law; an ICSID arbitration as well an UNCITRAL arbitration before the PCA. Muin completed a doctorate in International Law at SOAS (2014) under the supervision of Professor Matthew Craven, which he is currently preparing for publication. This tells a critical history of the birth of international investment law, which compares the regime of ‘extraterritoriality’ in the 19th century with the development of international investment law during the period of decolonisation. Muin’s main research interests include: international legal history, foreign investment law, the law of treaties, state immunity and human rights law.

Emily Jones has just been appointed as a fractional Senior Teaching Fellow lecturing on the Law of Torts. Emily has been a GTA at SOAS for the past three years where she has taught Foundations of International Law, International Pro- tection of Human Rights and Law of Property, amongst other subjects. Emily was formerly a Visiting Researcher in the School of Law at Sciences Po, Paris. She has previously worked for various women’s rights NGOs on both a domestic and international level and is currently doing her PhD in the Centre for Gender Studies at SOAS. Emily’s work aims to push at the boundaries/limits of feminist approaches to international law and international law’s structural biases by applying French- inspired feminist philosophy, psychoanalysis and feminist posthumanism. Her work thereby, in turn, aims to test the limits of these theories when applied to various contexts. Emily’s thesis analyses, in reference to the above: international human rights law, the secularisation of international law and international law’s Christian inheritance, neoliberalism in/as international law (through a focus on measurement cultures and the role and status of the global corporation) and Le- thal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS).

3 Peter Muchlinski: A Few Words on His Retirement, and His Appointment as Emeritus

By Nick Foster multinational enterprises. He also has an interest in the relationship between international and compara- Peter retired earlier this year after a little over 10 tive legal methodology as well as the process of glob- years at SOAS as Professor of International Commer- alisation focusing, in particular, on international and cial Law, and has recently been appointed Emeritus. comparative corporate law. As this piece is written for the School of Law’s Re- search Newsletter, I will concentrate on Peter’s re- Peter’s research output has been prodigious and con- search, but I will also say something about Peter as a tinues to be so despite the limitations imposed by his teacher, administrator, colleague and friend. state of health. A quick glance at his list of publications demonstrates the point. His Multinational Enter- After obtaining 1st class degrees from the LSE and prises and the Law, in print since 1995, is now in its Cambridge, Peter began his academic career in ear- second edition and OUP has asked him to prepare the nest at the University of Kent in 1981. He then spent third. He has co-edited (with Julia Black and Paul 15 years at the LSE before taking up the post of Drap- Walker) Commercial Regulation and Judicial Review ers' Professor of Law at Queen Mary and Westfield and (with Federico Ortino and Christoph Schreuer), College. Having moved back to Kent as Professor of the Oxford Handbook of International Investment Law Law and International Business in 2001, he joined (awarded ‘honourable mention’ i.e. first runner-up by SOAS in 2005, where he has taught the American Society of International both in the School of Law and the Law for its Certificate of Merit in a spe- Centre for International Studies and cialised area of law 2008). He has a long Diplomacy. He is also a qualified bar- list of articles, book chapters and other rister and a Door Tennant at Brick publications to his name, including nu- Court Chambers. merous contributions to the UNCTAD Series on International Investment Agree- Peter’s research profile is outstand- ments and the World Investment Re- ing. He is perhaps best known for ports, many of which are required read- (literally) writing the book on multi- ing for anyone studying those topics. national enterprises and the law. He single-handedly created, in difficult In his recent work Peter has worked on circumstances, an entirely new field the rebalancing of the rights and obliga- of legal scholarship. He also has a tions of host countries, home countries worldwide reputation as an authori- and investors in international investment ty on international investment law. agreements, and a book chapter on the impact of a business and human rights His long list of publications in these fields speaks for treaty on investment law and arbitration is about to itself, as do the posts he has held, and continues to appear. He is also working on an article, with a US col- hold. Inter alia, he has been a member of the Interna- league, on the ethical and legal implications of sweat- tional Law Association Committee on- Non State Ac- shop labour. tors in International Law, a co-rapporteur for the For- eign Investment Law Committee of the International Much more important than sheer output, though, is Law Association and, perhaps most notably, was for the rare combination of brilliance, thoroughness and 16 years a Senior Legal Adviser to UNCTAD-DITE/DIAE practicality which characterise Peter’s publications. on the law relating to international investment and a These qualities are truly exceptional. Principal Adviser on the UNCTAD Series on Interna- tional Investment Agreements. Peter’s brilliance has many facets. Two come immedi- ately to mind. The first is his insight. He possesses a As if being a world expert in not one, but two areas rare combination of qualities in this regard. He sees were not enough for anybody, he is also well known the macro and the micro aspects of a topic with equal for his work on international and European business clarity, and always cuts through to the essential, even law, law and development and commercial regulation, in the most complex and confusing of situations. and the social dimension of the regulation of international business, with emphasis on human rights and Continued over page

4 Peter Muchlinski: A Few Words (continued) Throughout a career in which he has taught an ex- traordinarily wide range of subjects at all levels, Peter has brought all the talents mentioned above to the The second is the excellence of his prose. One can classroom, along with an exceptional level of interest readily appreciate the excellence of his style just by in, and commitment to, his students. I had direct ex- reading it. What is not apparent, however, is the perience of this when we taught side by side on the speed and facility of its production. Most of us strug- International and Comparative Corporate Law Mas- gle for words to express an idea elegantly. Peter does ters course. It is quite something to see Peter in full so with no apparent effort, producing mellifluous flow, and to see the reaction of the students. prose which perfectly captures what he wants to say. On the administrative side, Peter has an admirable His thoroughness is readily apparent in all his work, record. Most notably, perhaps, during his time at and is all the more to be appreciated at a time when SOAS, was his work as Research Students Tutor when, so many publications are sadly deficient in this re- inter alia, he further progressed teaching for PhD stu- spect. dents, and on research committees. Dealing with Pe- ter in an administrative capacity was a pure pleasure. As far as practicality is concerned, it goes without say- His pragmatic, down to earth approach and his insight ing that it should be an essential component of all came into their own. commercial law scholarship. However, as with thoroughness, this is all too often lacking. All Peter’s work, Finally, a few words about Peter as a colleague, plus a however, is suffused with and informed by a thor- few personal ones about Peter as a friend. As a col- oughly practical approach. league, Peter is exemplary. He is always courteous and helpful, always pragmatic and solution-focussed, In addition to his own work, Peter has nurtured re- always willing to share his experience and contribute search by his supervision of numerous successful PhD to the life of the institution. As for our friendship, it students (16 to date) in subjects as diverse as legiti- was so fortunate for me that Peter came to SOAS. We mate expectations in international investment law, have shared a great many things over the years – Islamic finance, corporate governance of UK banks stimulating conversations in my little Peugeot 206 on and international arbitration in African states. Several the drive home once a week; Masters teaching and theses supervised by Peter have been published as PhD supervision; conversations between Peter and books, including (in much revised form) Jonathan Er- my wife on kitchen gardening; and much mutual sup- canbrack’s recent The Transformation of Islamic Law port during tougher times. in Global Financial Markets. Having co-supervised several students with him, I have admired Peter’s skill Peter’s contribution to SOAS has been exceptional. and dedication in shepherding students through the We have been incredibly lucky to have him, and it is PhD process. great that he can continue to contribute, as an Emeri- tus Professor, in both research and teaching. Peter’s talents are not limited to scholarship.

British Council Newton Fund Researcher Links Workshop at Universitas Indonesia

Professor Carol Tan, together with her co-PI, Professor Sulistyowati Irianto of Universitas Indonesia, co-hosted a three-day workshop on Indonesian migrant workers on 21-23 September 2016. The workshop, M2B (Maximising Migration Benefits), held at Universitas Indonesia in Jakarta, brought scholars, government officials, and civil society activists together to explore a number of themes including social remittances, enterprise and financial training, the impact of migration on family members left behind, mental health of return migrants and the progress of law reform as a means of achieving socio-economic change for migrant workers. The funding of nearly £37,000 allowed over 30 early career scholars and mentors from the UK and Indonesia to participate in the workshop. Amongst them were Dr Petra Mahy (Lecturer, SOAS School of Law) and Dr Al- Khanif (SOAS PhD alumnus).

5 New PhD Students at SOAS School of Law

Michele Tedeschini graduated in law from the University of Modena in 2013, with a dissertation on the impact of Somali piracy on international law. In 2014 he obtained a Master of Laws (Distinction) from University College London, where he particularly focused on international criminal law and the laws of war. His dissertation analysed the inconsistencies between the International Criminal Court's admissibility decisions in the cases against Saif Gaddafi and Abdullah al- Senussi. The paper was published on the Amsterdam Law Forum in July 2015. Having completed his 18-month legal traineeship in Italy, Michele joined SOAS in September 2016. His research project, supervised by Professor Kevin Heller, will investigate the custom-formation process applying to the area of international human rights law.

Riccardo Labianco graduated with a five-year master degree in law from the University of Trento, Italy, in 2015. At Trento Law School, famous for its comparative approach, he specialised in Public Internation- al Law and wrote a dissertation on the concept of citizenship in Israel and Lebanon from a comparative perspective. After finishing his degree in Italy, Riccardo enrolled in an LL.M. in ‘Human Rights, Conflict and Jus- tice’ here at SOAS. During that year, he had the chance to deepen his knowledge in the role of law in extra-ordinary scenarios, such as, conflict-peace transitions. In 2016, Riccardo started his PhD at SOAS Law School. His research topic regards the law of armed conflicts and, in particular, external interventions in internal conflicts through arms and military equipment transfers. In his research, particular attention will be dedicated to cases such as Syria, Ukraine and Libya. His two main pas- sions are International Law and the Middle East. He believes in the con- stant application of the law, even in the worst and extreme situations and its function in creating peace.

Sara Bertotti started her MPhil/PhD earlier this year. She is the recipient of the e-FileReady Scholarship to complete an MPhil/PhD on Law and Peace Agreements. Sara’s supervisor is Dr Gina Heathcote. Sara graduated in 2013 in International Relations and Diplomatic Affairs from the University of Bologna, Italy. Her professional background is in human rights and gender (predominately at the multilateral level) on which she worked in Ireland and Switzerland after her graduation. During the last week of September, Sara took part in the INTRAlaw Human Rights Colloquium organised by Aarhus University, Denmark. There she presented a draft article on the relationship between the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review and the Treaty Monitoring Bodies.

Bakhtiyor Abdulhamidov joined SOAS in September 2016 for a PhD project aimed at studying the process of constitution-building in Central Asian states following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. His supervisor is Dr Scott Newton. Bakhtiyor has two LLMs (Harvard and CEU) and a diploma in law (Tajik State National University). His professional experience includes corporate law practice and work on legal reform in his home country, Tajiki- stan. He also worked for a year at a research organisation based in Cam- bridge, Massachusetts.

6 Towards an Academic ora et labora with a particular focus on Indonesia—that impossible- to-encompass archipelagic state of resiliently idiosyn- Dr Vanja Hamzić cratic and scattered ideas about selfhood and identity I Cucullus non facit monachum know rather well (or, I should say, the small parts of which I think I have an idea about). I then moved, un- ‘Idleness is the enemy of the soul’, warned Benedict of expectedly (prompted by some suddenly discovered Nursia (c.480-550 CE) in Chapter XLVIII of his famous evidence in Arabic), to the complexities of the Transat- Regula Benedicti; ‘and therefore the brethren ought to lantic Slave Trade (15th–19th c. CE), of which, apparent- be employed in manual labour at certain times, at oth- ly, gender-variant Muslim subjectivities of Abyssinian ers, in devout reading’. This useful precept, summed and other African origins have been an integral part. I up in the Benedictine motto ora et labora, comes to started with the archives of Louisiana, in their various mind in a new light at the time I write this note. I am in public and private iterations, a terrain (if only I knew!) Princeton, at the Institute for Advanced Study, a covet- as boggy as local wetlands. These archives, it is safe to ed academic monastery of sorts tucked away in the say, have been cleansed, seemingly in the mid-19th c., woodlands of New Jersey, in which everything, every- of many ‘improprieties’—including those purportedly one moves by the clock. We have our meals together relating to sexual and gender diversity. Navigating at exactly the same time every day. The Institute’s them is no mean feat, but it is one I will happily return Schools alternate their seminars between the days of to in due course, later this year. the week, always starting at noon sharp. We, the brethren (and sisters!)— curiously called Members— take long walks in the afternoon, or are encouraged to engage in other alternatives to manual labour. And then, an abundance of reading, days hazy from the archival dust. And reading’s devotees aplenty, when dialogue is what one desires. I arrived here by happenstance. Having witnessed the publication of Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Mus- lim World: History, Law and Vernacular Knowledge at long last, towards the end of 2015, I began contem- plating its sequel—an analytical foray into human non- binary personhood that not only accounts for complexities of such identitary experience (as in that previ- ous book of mine) but uses it as the basis of a larger- Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ scale critique of the binary normative logics that un- derpin many foundational ideas about what a society or a polity should be like. I jotted down a proposal, I also conducted some preliminary explorations of the clumsily titled ‘Interruption: Muslim Subjectivities be- archives of Arabo-Norman Sicily (11th–13th c. CE), as yond Law’, and sent it to an old friend in Egypt. His that was a society and socio-political sphere whose reply was swift and constructive: ‘But there is that transition from Muslim to Christian rule was in many thing in Princeton… It seems perfect for you. I’m apply- ways negotiated by eunuchs. I teamed up with a won- ing right now. Why don’t you, too?’ And so it hap- derful professor of mediaeval legal studies at the Uni- pened. My Egyptian friend got in, too. versità degli Studi di Palermo, with whom I reached Ever since I knew I would eventually end up here, I out to the British Museum’s experts on this period. We worked myself into an archival frenzy. My project was are currently thinking of jointly applying for an exter- to be two-part. I would first search for new historical nal grant. These things all happened before my arrival evidence of Muslim lifeworlds that defied the male- to Princeton. Now that I am here, my first task is to female dyad—in law, social affairs, poetry… I would return to the archives of the American South, and its then ask what roles their non-binary experience immediate surroundings, in search for any evidence of played in their respective societies, and in ex post fac- the ways gender-variant individuals and communities to projections of their lives and times in the histories of of colour may have continued their existence under today. The first element would harness archival data; the yoke of American slavery and its dreadful institu- the second would, of necessity, rely more heavily on tions—including those that extended well into an os- ethnographic fieldwork. What followed, as always, was tensibly post-slavery period, when both archives and a messier type of trajectory. living human beings were systematically I began with the archives of and in Southeast Asia, Continued over page

7 Towards an Academic ora et labora tential publications beyond an authored book), I still (continued) know that it will, at some point, turn to the contemporary—where my usual fieldwork sites of Pakistan and Indonesia will probably take precedence over the other, less trodden, paths. subjected to ‘forceful forgetting’ via many powerful mechanisms of the American state, including that of The monastic simplicity of my daily life here offers an the law. immense oasis of calm. It quiets down the ordinarily stormy seascapes of my thoughts and research im- Whilst the theoretical, historical and geographical pulses. It brings people, archival artefacts and distant extents and the viable case studies of this project are lands into a fruitful trans-historical conversation. Tru- yet to coalesce in my mind (and, with them, the po- ly, I couldn’t ask for more.

Research Centre Activities

Centre for Human Rights Law (CHRL):

I. Events ‘Women’s Rights and Social Justice in India in Times of Neo-liberal and Reactionary Politics’, Speaker: Madhu Mehra, Executive Director of Partners for Law in Development, New Delhi, 12 May 2016 SSSUK and Centre of African Studies, SOAS, Eric Reeves, ‘The International Embrace of Khartoum: Causes and Consequences for Sudan, Implications for South Sudan’, Discussant: Peter Woodward, Chair: Lutz Oette, CHRL, 7 June 2016 CHRL and the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), Does Torture Prevention Work?, Expert workshop, Panel Discussion & Book Launch, 22 September 2016 CHRL and the International Refugee Rights Initiative, ‘After the UN Summit-Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants: What next?’ Expert meeting, 29 September 2016 II. Submissions Submission on the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Zero Draft of the General Comment on the Right to Redress for Victims of Torture or Ill-treatment under Article 5 of the African Charter on Hu- man and Peoples’ Rights, 29 June 2016 The Khartoum Process policy of engagement and human rights engagement in Sudan: Written evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Party Group on Sudan and South Sudan – Inquiry on UK-Sudan relations- consequences of engagement, 30 August 2016 Comments by the Centre for Human Rights Law on Draft Update of General Recommendation No.19 (1992) on gender based violence against women, 30 September 2016 Centre for East Asian Law (CEAL): The Thai Rule of Law Project continued with an additional external grant to enable it to hold a panel and a roundtable on Thailand After the Referendum at the annual conference of ASEASUK (Association of South- east Asian Studies in the UK) held in September 2016 at SOAS. Law, Environment and Development Centre (LEDC): The Law, Environment and Development Centre (LEDC) organised a panel on Law, Commons and Sustainable Development Goals – Exploring Law’s Role in Promoting Sustainability of the Commons at the IASC Re- gional Conference (Europe), Bern – Commons in a “glocal” World: Global Connections and Local Respons- es in May 2016. The panel included presentations by Lovleen Bhullar (LEDC), Birsha Ohdedar (LEDC), Yuan Qiong Hu (LEDC), Christine Frison (University of Louvain) and was convened by Philippe Cullet (LEDC). Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (CIMEL): Ian Edge has replaced Professor Mashood Baderin as Director.

8 Studying Law and Constitutions during Revolutionary Upheavals

Dr Nimer Sultany However, the constitutional responses to the uprisings were not uniform, as some regimes survived the I will be spending this academic year on a British protests. Accordingly, the research will contrast be- Academy-funded sabbatical to work on book project tween “revolutionary constitutionalism” (Egypt, Tuni- on revolution and constitutionalism in the Arab Spring sia, and Libya), and “reformist constitutional- and its aftermath. ism” (Jordan, Morocco, Bahrain, and Oman). Revolu- tionary constitutionalism exposed an internal tension Law has been central to the upheavals of the Arab between revolutionary and constitutional legitimacy. Spring. It played contradictory roles: it was the revolu- Different parties in Egypt and Tunisia relied on elec- tion’s enemy but also its expression; a stabilising yet toral results, street mobilisation, and courts to justify contentious force; and manifested in positive rules their positions. Despite initial lustration attempts, for- but also in higher principles. Whilst revolutionary mer regime officials returned to the political scene. changes (in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya) led to new constitu- Additionally, exclusive constitution-making (Egypt) tions expressing the new order, monarchies and an externally-imposed regime change in a histori- (Morocco, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman) reformed existing cally weak state (Libya) led to instability. This will re- constitutions that preserved the existing order. Politi- quire an assessment of the tension between revolu- cal disputes turned into legal battles, and judges were tions and constitutions. This tension was reflected in accused of partisanship. Taking the Arab Spring as a concrete questions that I will analyse: Egyptian and case study, this project seeks to critically evaluate the Tunisian revolutionaries debated whether to amend different roles and trajectories of the law in a revolu- or suspend existing constitutions; and whether they tionary setting. Specifically, the research will critically should resort to extra-legal measures like political analyze the Arab constitutions’ success in legitimating trials. A Tunisian court confronted the question when new regimes; how constitutions and revolutions con- does the revolution end; and Egyptian courts decided verge or clash; and the impact of revolution on legal on the legitimacy of constitution-making bodies. systems. This focus on courts and legal disputes is pertinent to The project’s point of departure is the legitimacy defi- overcome formalist analysis of constitutional docu- cit of the Arab state given the lack of popular partici- ments that is devoid of the vitality and plurality of pation. The Arab nation state had pursued top-down legal and constitutional debates. It also allows schol- “modernisation”, “nation-building”, “development”, ars to situate developments since the Arab Spring in a and “secularisation”. These measures were unsuc- longer temporal perspective that would permit nu- cessful: Islamism intensified; minorities demanded anced and in-depth conclusions. My manuscript will recognition; “state feminism” was superficial; and analyse these developments and debates against the economic crises led to discontent. background of constitutional theory and comparative scholarship. The Arab Spring exposed this legitimacy deficit. Thus, this project will foreground the question of legitimacy and, at its core, popular participation. As a source of legitimacy the constitution reflects a new social contract underlying a new political order. Arab Spring constitutionalism marks a shift from 19th century Ar- ab “elitist constitutionalism”, in which elites negotiated the constitutions, and 20th century “authoritarian constitutionalism”, in which the monarch granted the constitution, to an emerging form of “democratic constitutionalism” that offers a new grounding for regime legitimacy.

9 Some Upcoming Research Events

On 23 November 2016, the School of Law and the Centre for African Studies will hold the Law and Development in Africa Network 2nd Lecture Series on ‘Sovereign Immunity, Rule of law and its Impact on Infrastructure Develop- ment in Africa’ at SOAS. The event will be chaired by Professor Mashood Baderin, and the speakers will be Dr Emi- lia Onyema, from SOAS School of Law, and Mr Andrew Thomas of Hunton & Williams LLP. For details and regis- tration click here.

Professor Lynn Welchman, Ruba Salih and Elena Zambelli (CGS) are co-convening with the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) a conference at SOAS on 9-10 December under the title ‘Gender and Generation in the After- math of the Uprisings. Political Visions, Desires, Movements in the Middle East and North Africa Today’. Some re- ally interesting participants are coming, and everyone is welcome to join the event.

Dr Emilia Onyema’s current four-year (2015-2018) research project, which examines the promotion of arbitration in Africa by four major stakeholders (arbitral institutions, courts/judges; states/governments; and arbitrators/ practitioners) will hold its third conference from 3-5 April 2017 which will be hosted by the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration. For more information on the research project and conference series, please click here.

Dr Petra Mahy will be co-convening (with Dr Eleanor Pritchard, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Ox- ford) the Methodology and Methods stream at the annual Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Conference, to be held at Newcastle University on 5-7 April 2017. The call for papers will be issued shortly. Papers will be invited from all areas of socio-legal and empirical legal research which explicitly address methodology and methods through detailed description of the methodology/methods used in particular projects, explanation of why the methodology/methods were chosen and reflections on lessons learned.

SOAS hosted a lecture by Albie Sachs (anti-Apartheid activist and former member of the South African Constitutional Court), 29 June 2016 . Pictured with Fareda Banda and Paul Kohler.

10 New Publications by SOAS Law Staff and PhD Students

Banda, Fareda (2016) '“If You Buy a Cup, Why Would You Not Use It?” Marital Rape: The Acceptable Face of Gen- der Based Violence (Symposium on the International Legal Obligation to Criminalize Marital Rape)', AJIL Un- bound.

Cullet, Philippe (2016) ‘International Water Norms and Principles – Impacts on Law and Policy Development in In- dia’, in Comparisons in Legal Development – The Impact of Foreign and International Law on National Legal Systems, edited by Mauro Bussani & Lukas Heckendorn Urscheler, Zurich: Schulthess, pp. 55-71.

Foster, Nicholas HD, Maria Federica Moscati and Michael Palmer (eds) (2016) Interdisciplinary Study and Compara- tive Law, Wildy, Simmonds & Hill Publishing (This book is an augmented and slightly amended version of the special issue section of Volume 9, Issue 2 (2014) of the Journal of Comparative Law).

Foster, Nicholas HD, Maria Federica Moscati and Michael Palmer (2016) ‘Introduction’, in Interdisciplinary Study and Comparative Law, edited by Nicholas HD Foster, Maria Federica Moscati and Michael Palmer, Wildy, Simmonds & Hill Publishing. Grady, Kate (2016) ‘Disciplinary Offences at the Court Martial’, Criminal Law Review 10:714-742.

Hamzić, Vanja (2016) Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Muslim World: History, Law and Vernacular Knowledge. London: I.B. Tauris, Islamic South Asia series.

Hamzić, Vanja (2016) ‘Mir-Said Sultan-Galiev and the Idea of Muslim Marxism: Em- pire, Third World(s) and Praxis’, Third World Quarterly 37(11):2014-2060 (special issue: ‘Third World Approaches to International Law: On Praxis and the Intellectual’).

Hamzić, Vanja (2016) ‘Review of Faisal Devji, Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea (London: Hurst & Co, 2013)’ (2016) 36(2) South Asia Research 288-290.

Mahy, Petra (2nd author, with Naomi Creutzfeldt, Jana Kazaz, Emre Caliskan and Yin Yin Lu) (2016) ‘Consumer Protection in Turkey: Law, Informality and the Role of the Media,’ Workplace and Corporate Law Research Group, Monash Business School, Working Paper no. 21.

Menski, Werner (2016) ‘Justice, Epistemic Violence in South Asian Studies and the Nebulous Entity of Caste in Our Age of Chaos’, Editorial Article, South Asia Research 36(3):299-321. Menski, Werner and Kyriaki Topidi (2016) ‘Introduction: Religion as Empowerment’, in Religion as Empower- ment: Global Legal Perspectives, edited by Kyriaki Topidi and Lauren Fielder, Routledge, Abingdon and New York, pp. 1-18. Menski, Werner (2016) ‘Still Asking for the Moon? Opening Windows of Opportunity for Better Justice in In- dia’, Verfassung und Recht in Übersee Special Issue 49(2):125-47. Menski, Werner (2nd author, with David L. D’Avray) (2016) ‘Authenticating Marriage: The Decree Tametsi in a Com- parative Global Perspective’, in Tridentine Marriage in a Global Perspective, edited by Benedetta Albani, Paolo Aranha, Michela Catto, Frankfurt am Main: Max Planck Institute for European Legal History [Global Perspectives on Legal History, 2016], Max Planck Institute for European Legal History Research Paper Series No. 2016-03. Menski, Werner (2016) ‘Foreword’, SOAS Law Journal 3(1):viii-ix.

11 New Publications (continued)

Menski, Werner (2016) ‘Author and Subject index to IANL Vol 29 (2015), Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, 30(1):66-95. [ISSN 0269-5774]. Oette, Lutz (2nd author with Ilias Bantekas) (2016) International Human Rights Law and Practice, 2nd edn., Cambridge University Press. Oette, Lutz (2nd author with Carla Ferstman) (2016), Mass Refugee Influxes, Refoulement and the Prohibition against Torture, REDRESS. Oette, Lutz (2016) ‘Litigation before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Struggle against Torture in Sudan’, Sudan Studies for South Sudan and Sudan.

Onyema, Emilia (ed.) (2016) The Transformation of Arbitration in Africa: The Role of Arbitral Institutions, Kluwer Law International.

Onyema, Emilia (2016) ‘ Introduction’ and ‘Arbitral Institutions in Africa’ in The Transformation of Arbitration in Africa: The Role of Arbitral Institutions, edited by Emilia Onyema, Kluwer Law International.

Otomo, Yoriko and Stephen Humphreys (2016) ‘International Environmental Law’, in Oxford Handbook on Interna- tional Legal Theory, edited by Anne Orford and Florian Hoffman, Oxford University Press.

Otomo, Yoriko and Prost, Mario (2016) ‘British Influences on International Environmental Law: The Case of Wildlife Conservation’, in British Influences on International Law, edited by Jean-Pierre Gauci, Robert McCorquodale, Jill Barrett, Andraž Zidar and Anna Riddell, British Institute of International and Comparative Law.

Suresh, Mayur (2016) 'Review of: Puri, Jyoti. 2016. Sexual States: Governance and the Struggle over the Antisodomy Law in India. Durham: Duke University Press.' Feminist Legal Studies. Tan, Carol (2016) ‘Enforcing Socioeconomic Rights: Everyday Agency, Resistance and Community Resources Among Indonesian Domestic Workers in Hong Kong’, in The Everyday Political Economy of Southeast Asia, edited by Juanita Elias and Lena Rethel, Cambridge University Press, pp. 218-238. Tan, Carol (2015) ‘Xinjiapo, Zhongguo Xianggang de Wailai Laogong Zhengyi Jiejue Jizhi’ (新加坡，中国香港的外来劳工争议解决机制）in PALMER, Michael & MU Xiankui (eds), Bijiao Shiyexia de Gonggong Jiufen Jiejue yu Quanli Baozhang (比较视野下的公共纠纷解决与权力保障): 北京：中国政法大学出版社[Resolution of Public Disputes and Rights Pro- tection in Comparative Perspective], Beijing: China University of Political Science and Law Press, November 2015] ISBN： 9787562064916, pp. 25-30. Welchman, Lynn (lead author, along with coordinating authors Merike Blofield and Joseph Suad, and 8 other lead authors) (2016) ‘The Pluralization of Families’, Chapter 17 International Panel on Social Progress.

Yavuz, Miyase (2016) ‘Allah (God), al-Watan (the Nation), al-Malik (the King), and the Role of Ijtihād in the Family Law reforms of Morocco’, The Journal of the Middle East and Africa 7(2): 207-227.

12 Conference Participation and other Presentations by SOAS Law Staff and Students

Banda, Fareda, was invited to participate in an expert group meeting on ‘Whether or not legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex’ by UN Women. The meeting was held at the United Nations in New York on 14 and 15 June 2016.

Banda, Fareda, was invited to an expert group meeting by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in Paris on 13-14 September 2016. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and revise the indicators for the 2018 Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI).

Grady, Kate, gave a lecture entitled ‘Sex, Statistics, Peacekeepers and Power’ at the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law, School of Law, University of Melbourne, 19 October 2016.

Hamzić, Vanja, ‘Affective Critique: Fear, Hope, Abandonment and Pleasure in Dianne Otto’s Living with Internation- al Law’, presented at ‘Symposium to Celebrate the Work of Professor Dianne Otto’, Centre for Gender Stud- ies, SOAS, University of London, September 2016, London.

Hamzić, Vanja, ‘The Dera Paradigm: Homecoming of the Gendered Other’, presented at ‘Speaking Law’s Home: Law, Language and Anthropology’, Annual Conference of the Law and Society Association, 2-5 June 2016, New Orleans, USA.

Hamzić, Vanja, ‘Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Muslim World: History, Law and Vernacular Knowledge’, presented at CRN Book Lunch: Critical Engagements and Visions in International Law, Annual Conference of the Law and Society Association, -2 5 June 2016, New Orleans, USA.

Hamzić, Vanja, ‘International Law as Violence: Competing Absences of the Other’, presented at ‘Queer Perspectives on Law 3: Queering the International / Internationalising the Queer’, Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS, Uni- versity of London, 28 January 2016.

Hamzić, Vanja, ‘International Law as Violence: Competing Absences of the Other’, presented at ‘Queering Interna- tional Law: Possibilities, Alliances, Complicities, Risks’, Institute for International Law and the Humanities (IILAH), Melbourne Law School, December 2015, Melbourne, Australia.

Hamzić, Vanja, ‘Mir-Said Sultan-Galiev and the Idea of Muslim Marxism: Empire, Third World(s) and Praxis’, Third World Approaches to International Law Writing Workshop: On Praxis and the Intellectual, Maynooth Univer- sity, September 2015, Maynooth, Ireland.

Hamzić, Vanja ‘The Dera Paradigm: Homecoming of the Gendered Other’, Re-imagining Anthropological and Socio- logical Boundaries, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) Inter-Congress, Thammasat University, July 2015, Bangkok, Thailand.

Hamzić, Vanja, ‘On Muslim Marxism à la Mir-Said Sultan-Galiev: Empire, Law and Quietist Insurrections’, presented at ‘Islamic Law and Empire’, Research Conference, IGLP, Harvard Law School, June 2015, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Hu, Yuanqiong, ‘Converging of Forums or Identifying the Gaps? Discourse and Challenges in the context of Intellec- tual Property, Access to Medicines and Investor-State Dispute Settlement Proceeding--- Preliminary Observa- tions through the Participation in Eli Lily and Company vs. Canada Amicus Curiae Drafting’, presented at the Workshop on ‘Rethinking International Investment Law: Civic Advocacy, Representation and Participation in the International Investment Regime’, Centre of Law, Regulation and Governance of the Global Economy, University of Warwick, 3-4 May 2016.

13 Conference Presentations (continued)

Hu, Yuanqiong, ‘Intellectual Property and Access to Health Technologies’, presented at the Workshop on ‘Making Technological Innovation Work for Sustainable Development’, Harvard Kennedy School of Government and UCL Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEPP), 11 May 2016.

Hu, Yuanqiong, ‘Knowledge Commons, Health Innovation and Patent Law’, presented at the LEDC organised panel on ‘Law, Commons and Sustainable Development Goals—Exploring Law’s Role in Promoting Sustainability of the Commons’, IASC (International Association for the Study of the Commons) Regional Conference (Europe) , University of Bern, 13 May 2016.

Hu, Yuanqiong, ‘Intellectual Property Rules in TRIPS and Free Trade Agreements: Perspectives from Access to Medi- cines and Innovation’, present at the panel on ‘How to Enhance Synergies between Public Health Objectives and Trade Agreements’, WTO Workshop on Trade and Public Health , Geneva, October 20, 2016.

Mahy, Petra, ‘The Plural Regulation of Restaurant Work in Indonesia and Australia: A Comparison’, presented at workshop on ‘Reimagining Labour Law for Development: Informal Work in the Global North and the Global South’, Society of Legal Scholars Annual Seminar, SOAS, University of London, 15-16 September 2016. Mahy, Petra, co-organised and co-chaired (with Mary Austin) two panel sessions on ‘Social and Labour Movements in Southeast Asia’ at ASEASUK Conference, SOAS, University of London, 16-18 September 2016. Mahy, Petra, ‘Cultural Explanations for Informality? A Research Agenda for Exploring Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Expectations of Labour Regulation’, presented at workshop on ‘Maximising Migration Benefits: Indonesian Migrant Workers Health and Wellbeing’, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, 19-21 September 2016. Mahy, Petra, ‘Legal Consciousness and Plural Work Regulation in Indonesia,’ presented at Asian Law and Society Conference (ALSA), National University of Singapore, 22-23 September 2016.

Menski, Werner, gave a Keynote Lecture on ‘Managing Diversity Intelligently in a Changing Society’ at the OP.RECHT.MECHELEN Festival on Justice & Diversity, Mechelen, Belgium, 20 October 2016. Oette, Lutz, ‘The Right to Reparation for Victims of Human Rights Violations in Sri Lanka’, presented atCICO, Meeting of Charitable Diaspora Organisations working on Sri Lanka, 3 July 2016. Oette, Lutz, ‘Sudan’s New Role as Migration Gatekeeper: What Price for Human Rights Protection?’ presented at Society for the Study of the Sudans UK, Symposium and Annual General Meeting, 17 September 2016.

Oette, Lutz, presented oral evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Party Group on Sudan and South Sudan – In- quiry on UK-Sudan relations-consequences of engagement: The Khartoum Process policy of engagement and human rights engagement in Sudan, 11 October 2016. Onyema, Emilia, conducted training (as lead facilitator) on the ‘Bolts, Nuts and Pitfalls of International Commercial Arbitration’ at the Ghana Arbitration Centre, Accra, 10-12 August 2016. Onyema, Emilia, participated in the inaugural conference of the Africa Commercial Law Foundation, held at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, 14-15 July 2016.

Onyema, Emilia, organised and spoke on ‘Rethinking the role of Courts and Judges in Supporting Arbitration in Afri- ca’ at the second SOAS Arbitration in Africa conference on the role of courts and judges in Arbitration which was hosted by the Lagos Court of Arbitration Centre, 22-24 June 2016.

Onyema, Emilia, moderated a panel at the first ICC Africa Regional Arbitration Conference, Lagos, 19-20 June 2016. Onyema, Emilia, delivered a paper on ‘The Interface between Domestic Courts and Arbitral Tribunals’ at the 23rd ICCA Congress, Mauritius, -8 11 May 2016.

14 Conference Presentations (continued)

Suresh, Mayur, presented as a part of a panel titled ‘Evidence in Question: Anthropological Authority and Legal Judgment’ at the European Association of Social Anthropology Annual meeting, Milan, 20-23 July 2016. Suresh, Mayur, was an Invited Speaker at Chevening Gurukul Leadership Programme ‘Freedom and New Threats to Liberty in India’, Kings College London, 25 October 2016. Tan, Carol, ‘The JCPC and the Malay World’, presented at Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Case Papers Sym- posium, IALS, Forum for Legal and Historical Research and London Legal History Seminar, 13 May 2016.

Tan, Carol, participated in ‘Contract Law: New Directions’, a teaching workshop organised by Dr Yoriko Otomo held at SOAS on 26 August 2016.

Vora, Vishal, ‘Unregistered Muslim Marriages in the United Kingdom’, presented at a Workshop of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Legal Pluralism in Muslim Context, 6 Octo- ber 2016.

Welchman, Lynn, participated at the invitation of Musawah (the Global Network for Equality and Justice in Muslim Families) in a ‘Global Life Stories Reflection Meeting and In-Depth Research Workshop’ in Rabat, Morocco, early October 2016. Welchman, Lynn, later in October and also in Rabat presented a paper under the title ‘The Palestinian Youth Move- ment (PYM): transnational politics, inter/national frameworks and intersectional alliances.’ This paper is the pre-final draft of the case study developed by Welchman with Ruba Salih and Elena Zambelli for the fourth phase of the EU-funded POWER2YOUTH project.

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

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