This webinar showcases research work from the AHRC-funded project COVID-19 in Kenya: Global Health, Human Rights and the State in a Time of Pandemic.

Presented by Professor John Harrington and Dr David Ngira of Cardiff Law and Global Justice, with responses from Dr L Muthoni Wanyeki, Africa Regional Director, Open Society Foundation, and Dr Mercy Kaburu, United States International University.

It will address the successes and challenges of Kenya’s ‘vaccine diplomacy’ during COVID-19, looking to draw lessons for future foreign policy in health and more genreally.

This event will be held at 5:00 - 6:15pm East African Time

The presentation is available to view.

Speaker: Dr Raza Saeed, Warwick Law School

Discussant: Dr Huw Williams, ENCAP, Cardiff

Time: 1-2pm Friday 15th November  (Light lunch from 1230)

Venue: Room 2.29 Law Building

This paper conducts a dialogue between the scholarship on law and colonialism and moral and analytic political philosophy. The discussion of identifying the distinct wrong of European colonialism has recently gained traction within analytic philosophy, and has raised a crucial question for scholars of law and colonialism to identify the specific and distinct wrong of colonialism, if any – a question that is seemingly simple but which we cannot dismiss so readily. It is premised on the idea that it is not sufficient to critique colonialism as just another example of an unjust political system that employs violence to do its bidding, and questions if there is distinctly problematic about colonialism.

The dominant accounts of the distinct wrong of colonialism either focus on usurpation of resources and appropriation of territory as colonialism’s key harm, or it takes the establishment and continuation of unjust political structures as the defining attribute of colonialism. This paper engages with the accounts these dominant accounts in detail and highlights how these accounts fall short on two fronts: one, they are unable to distinguish between a colonial regime and a democratically deficient system for the most part; and second, that these perspectives take a narrow view on colonialism and, because of this, their distinct wrong remains disassociated from the other wrongs of colonialism. The paper then presents its own perspective on the epistemic wrong of colonialism and suggests how the assumed inequality of human beings was at the foundation of the colonial enterprise. It argues that this distinct wrong was foundational for the problematic colonial policies and contributed to the political and territorial harms perpetrated through the colonial project.

Sanitation has increasingly become a major development concern following the evolution of human civilizations into more complex and larger societies. Today, Africa is rapidly urbanising and most parts are plagued with poor access to basic services and related human rights violations. Sub-Saharan Africa, with a population of around 1 billion, has the highest proportion of people living without access to clean water and sanitation globally. The sustainability of interventions geared towards addressing the sanitation crisis will depend on the extent to which the gap in access is reduced for poor and vulnerable persons especially.

This lecture illustrates some of the broad concerns of inclusive access to sanitation services, with examples drawn from Nigeria. It highlights salient contradictions and incoherence in the socio-legal construction of sanitation among various stakeholders, and in the regulatory approaches and governance instruments, to an extent that reinforces power asymmetries, dissuades the enforcement of sanitation regulation and compliance, and inhibits inclusive access.

Dr Pedi Obani of the United Nations University, Accra.

Discussants: Mulugeta Sisay and Ben Pontin from Environmental Justice Research Unit (EJRU)

4-6pm, Thursday 10th October 2019

Room 2.30A School of Law and Politics, Museum Avenue, Cardiff

Book your tickets.

Beyond the Limits of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery law: Decent Work and State Accountability

Cardiff Law and Global Justice is pleased to welcome Professor Siobhán Mullally as the Speaker for our annual lecture. She will be presenting an engaging lecture titled Beyond the Limits of Human trafficking and Modern Slavery Law: Decent Work and State Accountability.

We are also very happy to have Professor Urfan Khaliq from the Cardiff School of Law and Politics as the Discussant.

Book your tickets.

Event: Cardiff Law and Global Justice Annual Lecture

Date: January 29th, 2019

Time: 5:30 - 7:30pm

Location: Council Chamber, Temple of Peace

Cardiff Law and Global Justice invite you to the launch of this innovative new book by Huw L. Williams (Cardiff) & Carl Death (Manchester).

They will be joined by a panel of discussants, with expertise in theory and practice of global justice:

• Diamond Ashiagbor (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies)
• Gillian Hundt (Warwick)
• Nick Johnson (Nottingham Trent)
• Surabhi Ranganathan (Cambridge)

The launch also marks the establishment of Cardiff Law and Global Justice,  a research centre of Cardiff University.

A wine reception follows.

The event will take place at Temple of Peace, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3AP

To reserve a free place please book.

Come along to hear about the Global Justice Pro Bono Clinic’s trip to Nairobi, Kenya where we undertook a legal internship at the Katiba Institute.

There will be a buffet lunch provided, and a chance to ask any questions you have on the trip or Global Justice Pro Bono.

The event will take place in Room 1.29, Cardiff Law School

Grace Musila’s widely acclaimed book A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour: Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder (2015) examines official and popular responses to the 1988 murder of British tourist Julie Ward, in Kenya’s Maasai Mara Game reserve. In it she shows how rumour and speculation about state complicity exposed the manipulation of legal and scientific ‘fact’. As such responses to the case demonstrate the complex linkages of the Kenyan polity to global modernity, shaped by the earlier colonial encounter. Dr Musila will introduce a chapter of the book and its central thesis, followed by a roundtable discussion.

The seminar is led by Grace Musila, with Ambreena Manji and Professor Stephen Morton (Southampton University).

Dr Grace A. Musila is part of the Department of English, Stellenbosch University and a Cardiff International Visiting Fellow (2017).

Part of a series on Law, Resistance and the Post-Colonial State hosted by Centre for Law and Global Justice, Centre for Cultural and Critical Theory and the School of Modern Languages.

This event is 1 - 3 pm 5 June in room 1.28 of Cardiff Law School. This event is free but please book your ticket via eventbrite.

A copy of the essay is available from harringtonj3@cardiff.ac.uk

This colloquium engages with Simon Gikandi’s influential essay Globalisation and the Claims of Post-Coloniality (2001) to ask … what is ‘global literature’ … what is its relation to material relations of inequality and exploitation between regions of the world … how does it reproduce or conceal the legacy of colonialism … does it show that the nation-state has been transcended … to what extent is it still dependent on the specific canon of English literature?

Dr Grace A. Musila is part of the Department of English, Stellenbosch University and a Cardiff International Visiting Fellow (2017).

Part of a series on Law, Resistance and the Post-Colonial State hosted by Centre for Law and Global Justice, Centre for Cultural and Critical Theory and the School of Modern Languages.

This event is 1 - 3 pm 23 May in room 1.28 of Cardiff Law School. This event is free but please book your ticket via eventbrite.

A copy of the essay is available from harringtonj3@cardiff.ac.uk

Dr Aman Hingorani. Co-hosted with WCIA and Centre for Law and Society.

This lecture examines the role that international law can play in helping to resolve the conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Dating from the partition of the sub-continent in 1947, the conflict has been driven by Indian bungling, Pakistani intervention and the cynicism of the superpowers. With tens of thousands killed and millions rendered homeless the Kashmir issue has poisoned relations on the sub-continent, given impetus to international terrorism and threatened all-out war between these two nuclear powers. In a review of court rulings, UN papers and international law scholarship, as well as a review of British archives, Dr Hingorani will argue that legal analysis can depoliticize the issue and contribute to its resolution.

The lecture is based on Dr Hingorani’s book Unravelling the Kashmir Knot, published by Sage in 2016 with a foreword by Professor Upendra Baxi, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Delhi and Warwick. The book was released by the then Chief Justice of India, Justice T S Thakur, and has been warmly commended by Justices M N Venkatachaliah and A M Ahmadi, former Chief Justices of India, Justice Dalveer Bhandari of the International Court of Justice and Mr George Charles Bruno, former US Ambassador.

Dr Hingorani is an Advocate of the Supreme Court of India, and Mediator in the Supreme Court and High Court, Delhi. He is a Trustee of the Kapila & Nirmal Hingorani Foundation which promotes education about public interest litigation and a partner of the Law and Global Justice Research Group at Cardiff University.

Co-hosted with Centre for Law and Society and Deighton Pierce Glyn, with Dr Aman Hingorani, respondent.

The students on the Global Justice Pro Bono Scheme will present the work they carried out during the 2016 – 2017 academic year, namely the showcased the work they had done on company grievance mechanisms and land law in Tanzania.

Professor Doris Buss - work in progress seminar co-hosted with International Studies Research Unit, with Dr Elisa Wynne Hughes, discussant.

Doris Buss is a Professor of Law at Carleton University in Canada. Her research centres on international law and human rights, women’s rights, global social movements, and feminist theory. She is currently running a large research project on mining and the law in Africa.

This lecture will look at the current international legal approaches to regulating the mining sector in Africa. It will draw on research in Kenya to explore how policies on investor and worker rights in mining are reconciled, comparing them with the approach taken elsewhere in the African continent. Professors Buss will discuss her ongoing filed research among small scale artisanal miners in Kenya, putting women’s livelihoods at the centre of the analysis. It sketches out some of the social structures that govern how artisanal mining is in fact conducted and shows how these are at odds with presumptions underlying current law and dominant policy prescriptions.

The lecture will be held at the Temple of Peace and is co-hosted with the WCIA and Centre for Law and Society.

Professor James Gathii, Loyola-Chicago University presents the Annual International Law Lecture of the WCIA and Welsh Law Schools, with Dr Celine Tan (Warwick), discussant. 

Our Law and Global Justice Research Group welcomes eminent Professor, James Gathii to Cardiff  to present the Annual International Law Lecture of the Welsh Centre for International Affairs (WCIA), co-hosted with the law schools in Wales and the South West.

Professor James Gathii is Professor of International Law at Loyola University Chicago.  He has a distinguished record of scholarship, teaching, and practice in the field of international human rights and trade which has made a lasting impact on law and policy in Africa and around the world.

The lecture, which will take place in Cardiff’s Temple of Peace, historic home of the WCIA on 21 November, addressed the way in which global trading rules are contributing to Africa’s deindustrialization and what can been done about it. Professor Gathii will be joined by Dr. Celine Tan, an expert in international economic law from Warwick Law School.

This year’s lecture is particularly timely in the aftermath of Brexit, given the need for the UK to engage in trade negotiations with developing countries on its own account. On a more local level the lecture is also relevant given the passage of the Well Being of Future Generations Act this year by the Welsh Assembly. This obliges public bodies in Wales to adhere to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to act in a ‘globally responsible’ way.

The lecture was well attended by students, academics, representatives from Welsh Government, legal practitioners, European Commission (Wales Office) staff and guests including Sir Malcolm Pill, former Lord Justice of Appeal, Cat Jones, Head of the Hub CymruAfrica Partnership and Ffion Storer, Fair Trade Wales. Dr Tara Smith, lecturer in international law, attended with a group of students from Bangor University Law School.

Staff-student round table on the work of Professor James Gathii, with Dr Branwen Gruffydd Jones, discussant.

A workshop focussed on the recent work of Professor Christopher Thornhill, University of Manchester, with Dr George Karekwaivanane (Edinburgh) and Dr Mara Malagodi (City). Funded PG participants from Queen Mary, KCL, Swansea, Manchester, Cardiff.

The Global Justice Pro Bono program will show case students ongoing research on the legal and political background to the ‘Kenya Slum Clearance Case’ and on the specific problems and opportunities for securing effective accountability for possible human rights violations in this context.

There will be additional presentations by practitioners in the field of research and advocacy on law and global justice. Daniel Cullen, Programme Assistant, human rights and refugees at the Quaker United Nations Office, Geneva will present on children and international law and Justin Prosser of Hub Cymru will speak on the campaign for the Well Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. 

The event is co-hosted with Welsh Centre for International Affairs (WCIA) and Deighton Pierce Glyn, and takes place at the Temple of Peace, Cardiff.