International Women’s Day 2020

March 8, 2020

“Each for Equal. An Equal World is an Enabled World.” To mark this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD), we recognise and celebrate the invaluable contributions of women to international economic law scholarship. We are proud to point out that 50 per cent of our editors/contributing editors are women, and we are committed to promoting equality. Our IWD collection comprises four contributions.

“In Conversation with an International Commercial Law Expert: Dr Bolanle Adebola on her Choices and the Complexities of Corporate Insolvency Law” presents a first-hand account of Bolanle’s path to corporate insolvency law and her commendable contributions to this complex area of the law. Bolanle emphasises that as researchers, we need to look closely at the realities of our circumstances and apply methodologies and methods that resolve the challenges of our contexts. She maintains that we can contribute to global knowledge through this.

Purity Maritim’s “Tracing the Scholarly Map on Gender, Culture and Property: A Focus on African Female Scholars” celebrates five female scholars of African descent that have shaped the discourse on gender, culture and property: Professor Celestine Nyamu-Musembi, Professor Sylvia Tamale, Professor Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Professor Ambreena Manji and Professor Sylvia Kang’ara. Purity notes that these scholars have significantly contributed to more diverse representation in scholarship and broken-down the barriers for young female scholars.

Titilayo Adebola’s “Through Her Lens: Phenomenal Views on Intellectual Property Rights” celebrates five female scholars of African descent that have made outstanding contributions to the multifaceted and often esoteric debates on intellectual property rights (IPRs): Professor Ruth Okediji, Professor Olufunmilayo Arewa, Professor Caroline Ncube, Dr Amaka Vanni and Dr Chijioke Okorie. Titilayo observes that these scholars have captured IPRs through the lens of Global South stakeholders and produced phenomenal views grounded on contextual insights.

Finally, in “Women in International Economic Law”, we spotlight an initial selection of women working on international economic law and invite our readers to add to this list through the comment box below.