SOAS School of Law Research Newsletter Issue 10, Dec 2015
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SOAS School of Law Research Newsletter Issue 10, Dec 2015–April 2016 Contents Staff Research News Staff Research News: 1-2 These past months, as always, have been a busy and successful time for PhD Student News: 3 many of our staff members, with research grants, recognition of excel- lence in teaching and appointments to policy-making posts. Thai Rule of Law Project: 4 Dr Scott Newton was a co-applicant on a successful British Academy- Sabbatical: the Land of Milk and Honey: 5 Dfid grant on ‘Informal Governance and Corruption – Transcending the Principal Agent and Collective Action Paradigms’. This grant, to the val- Half a Year Here; Half a Year There: 6 ue of £399,844.50, will be used to investigate the role that informality Visit to Melbourne Law School: 7 plays in fuelling corruption and stifling anti-corruption policies, adopting a bottom-up perspective. The project will test for the impact Indonesian Senators Visit SOAS: 7 of informality on corruption and anti-corruption in East Africa (Kenya, Policy and PhD Research on Unregistered Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda) adopting a comparative research design within the region and in relation to other contexts. Scott’s book The Marriages: 8 Constitutional Systems of the Central Asian States: a Contextual Analy- Research Centre Activities: 9 sis is also in press with Hart Publishing. New Publications: 10-11 Also successful in a grant application, Professor Carol Tan has been awarded funding of £36,400 from the British Council Newton Fund’s Recent Conference Presentations: 11-14 Researcher Links Workshop Grant scheme to hold a workshop in part- nership with Professor Sulistyowati Irianto of Universitas Indonesia. The grant will fund researchers from UK and Indonesian research institu- tions to participate in ‘M2B: Indonesian Migrant Workers from Security to Development’ in Jakarta in September 2016. Continued on page 2 Shubhaa Srinivasan and Daniel Leader, both from Leigh Day, presenting at a workshop on ‘Multinational Enterprises and Environmental Justice: Laws and Implications of Shell Nigeria and BP Colombia Cases,’ Law, Environment and Development Centre, SOAS, 24 February 2016 (see page 9). Photo credit: Hu Yuanqiong 1 Staff Research News (continued) Professor Fareda Banda was shortlisted for outstanding tutor of the year award (OUSU) at Oxford University 2016 (for her work on the Department for Continuing Education/Faculty of law masters’ course on women’s rights). Fareda has also, with John Eekelaar of Oxford University, recently completed a report on “Family Law and Human Rights” for UN Women. Professor Fareda Banda was delighted to meet three of her former SOAS students at the UN Women Conference in Cairo, 22-24 March 2016. Left to right: Molk Said (LLB-family law), Sara Abdel-Ghany (LLM- Human Rights of Women), Fareda Banda and Reem Wael Mahmoud (PhD). Dr Catherine Jenkins has been appointed as Visiting Professor to the UFR de Droit et Science Politique at Université de Par- is X for the 2016 calendar year. Dr David McIlroy’s recent visit to Finland was covered in a Finnish newspaper “Uusi Tie” (24 March, 20160 and in the Finnish magazine ‘Sana’ (31 March 2016). David is pursuing his research interests in the financial services industry and on the interaction between regulation and this culture, as well as in human rights and rule of law. David is currently co -authoring a briefing paper with another barrister, Alasdair Henderson, on the UK government’s proposals to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights. Professor Philippe Cullet continues to contribute to water law policy development in India though membership of the Gov- ernment of India’s Committee to Draft National Water Framework Law (December 2015- ), and the Government of India’s Committee to Draft a River Basin Management Bill (December 2015- ). Philippe is conducting research on the right to sanita- tion in India, with particular emphasis on its realisation in rural areas through policy instruments (Swachh bharat mission) and particular focus on the conceptual understanding of sanitation as a right at the national and international level, its develop- ment in parallel to the rights to water, health and environment and the crucial labour dimension (including manual scaveng- ing). 2 PhD Student News The School of Law congratulates the following PhD graduates and their supervisors: Demetra Loizou passed her viva with minor corrections on 12 January 2016. Her thesis title is ‘The Impact of the International Criminal Court’s Establishment on the Further and future Devel- opment of the Crimes Within its Jurisdiction’ and she was supervised by Lutz Oette and Chandra Sriram. Ebbe Rogge, working on the topic of ‘Better Banking for Britain’, passed his viva with minor cor- rections in May 2016. He was supervised by Peter Muchlinski and Nick Foster. The examiners were Professor Joanna Benjamin of the LSE and Professor George Walker of Queen Mary. Jonathan Bashi Ruhahindwa was awarded his PhD subject to minor corrections. The title of Jon- athan’s thesis is ‘Regional Developmentalism and the Use of Law to Support the Establishment of an African Economic Community.’ He was supervised by Professor Diamond Ashiagbor and Dr Scott Newton. The examiners were Professor Kofi Oteng Kufuor of the University of East London, and Dr Philippe De Lombaerde from the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Re- gional Integration Studies. Hani Zedan, supervised by Ian Edge, was awarded his doctorate without corrections just before Christmas. His topic was ‘A Critical Analysis of Legal and Regulatory Policy-making in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Driving Factors, Determinants and Consequences’. Nura Zolkapli also passed her viva with minor corrections. The two external examiners, Prof Mehmet Asutay and Prof Rodney Wilson (Durham University) were extremely positive about her thesis and the viva went well, strengthening their positive views. Nura was supervised by Jona- than Ercanbrack and Laurence Harris. **** In other news, Vishal Vora also submitted his thesis titled ‘The Islamic Marriage Conundrum: Reg- ister or Recognize? The Legal Consequences of the Nikah in England and Wales’ in February 2016, and is awaiting his viva date (see also his reflections on the policy implications of his research on page 8). Oreva Olakpe has written from the field to report that she has now concluded five months of research in China in March and just begun research in Nigeria in April. Her research focuses on South-south migrations and is using case studies in China and Nigeria as the lens through which she is looking at international migration and refugee law, as opposed to using the West. In China, Oreva carried out research on refugees and undocumented asylum migrants from Afri- ca. Currently she is shuttling between two Refugee camps in Akpabuyo and Ikang, in Nige- ria, where migrants from the Bakassi Peninsula are seeking refuge and resettlement from perse- cution by the Camerounian government. Oreva is finding that there is so much to learn from both case studies because they are not elevated in discussions on international refugee law. 3 Rule of Law in Thailand Project at SOAS The Centre of East Asian Law (CEAL) launched its Rule of Law in Thailand Project on 26 February 2016 with a panel discus- sion chaired by Dr Carlo Bonura (SOAS, Pol- itics). The three distinguished speakers were Professor Sir Jeffrey Jowell KCMG QC (Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law), Pro- fessor Peter Leyland (SOAS) and Professor Tim Forsyth (LSE). In her project leader’s welcome, Carol Tan spoke of how the pro- ject marks a milestone in the study of Thai law at SOAS and indeed, outside Thailand. This official launch was preceded by a soft launch event on the current state of the rule of law in Thailand introduced by Dr Sanzhu Zhu, CEAL Chair and followed by contributions from Professor Peter Ley- Rule of Law in Thailand Project Launch, 26 February 2016. From left to land, Mr Verapat Pariyawong, Dr Carlo Bo- right: Sir Jeffrey Jowell, Professor Peter Leyland, Professor Tim Forsyth, nura and Dr Mimi Ajibadé. Dr Carlo Bonura and Professor Carol Tan. The project’s regular series of seminars began with a seminar in April on “Human Rights in Thailand - A Failed Transplant?” by Professor Andrew Harding (National University of Singapore (NUS) and a former member of SOAS School of Law) on 19 April 2016. Forthcoming events of the project include a panel discussion on ‘Thailand After the Ref- erendum’ (ASEASUK conference, hosted by the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, SOAS) in September. The panel will be asked to examine the referendum on the Thai draft Constitution (occurring in Au- gust) and the prospects for a return to civil- ian rule. Panel speakers are likely to debate the key turning points of the past and the future of democracy in Thailand after the constitutional referendum (due to take place this August). Further information, updates on the project and links to video recordings of some of the project’s events may be found here https:// www.soas.ac.uk/ceal/rolt/ or here https:// Rule of Law in Thailand Project Launch, 26 February 2016 www.facebook.com/soasrolt/. 4 Sabbatical: the Land of Milk and search as part of a programme held at the Institute for Contemporary Arts, and giving talks (for Tel Aviv Uni- Honey versity, the British Institute for International and Com- Yoriko Otomo parative Law, and the University of New South Wales). I have also been co-organising an international work- During terms 1 and 2 this year, I have been on sab- shop, ‘Making Milk’ with Mathilde Cohen from the batical: first as a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University’s University of Connecticut, which is supported by the Centre for Global History, and then as a Visiting Fellow DRC and will be hosted at the School for Advanced at the University of New South Wales’ Law School.