Sustainable Development

This book is about reimagining sustainable development. At a time when many scholars have become disillusioned with the concept and calls for abandoning sustainable development in favour of new concepts abound, Dzah makes an impassioned call for us to retain the idea, whose ancient roots predate its co-optation by Western (legal) hegemony, while think about it in a radically different way. The way in which he suggests we do this, is by turning to African relational ontologies and environmental ethics that (re)conceptualise humans “as mere co-occupants of nature with other species”.

I am very happy to introduce the symposium on my book, Sustainable Development, International Law, and a Turn to African Legal Cosmologies, by Cambridge University Press in May 2024. This symposium features four very thoughtful and critical reviews. These four reflections should be read as companion pieces together with my introduction. They address different aspects of the book, provide points of convergence and divergence, and foreshadow future research. I am grateful to these reviewers for their kind engagement with my book, for their constructive criticisms and positive feedback. I am equally grateful to the editors of AfronomicsLaw.org for curating this symposium.

Therefore, it is important to analyse the impact of these International Financial Institutions in the development of African countries which they operate in. It is also necessary to assess their accountability mechanisms and legal personalities in line with International Law, the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Human Rights Impact Assessments of Economic Reforms. This is because their regulation and compliance with International Standards and International Law is an important and contemporary area which would inform their effectiveness and their contribution to sustainable development while considering the UN 2030 Agenda and 2063 Agenda for Africa.

The Research Center for International Legal Studies of National Chengchi University and the Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law will hold the 2025 ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum at Howard Civil Service International House in Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. The theme of the Research Forum is “Sustainable International Law.” ​​

This webinar explores the critical issue of illicit financial flows (IFFs) and their impact on poverty and vulnerability. IFFs significantly undermine efforts towards sustainable development by diverting resources away from public services and infrastructure, exacerbating economic inequality, and perpetuating cycles of poverty. Expert speakers from diverse fields, including academia, policy-making space, and private practice, will explore the mechanisms through which IFFs operate and their detrimental effects on economic stability and social equity. A webinar presented by the IBA Poverty and Social Development Committee, supported by the IBA Asset Recovery Committee and the IBA African Regional Forum. Supported by Afronomicslaw, and Schulich School of Law of Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

This essay proposes an alternative to the contemporary theorization of the relationship between Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and Migrant Rights. Contemporary theorization of the relationship between IFFs and Migrant Rights solidified a linear correlation between human trafficking or smuggling and IFFs. It is common among existent literature to state that human trafficking and smuggling are some of the contributors to IFFs out of Africa. For instance, the High-Level Panel on IFFs from Africa noted that IFFs “typically originate from three sources: commercial tax evasion, trade mis-invoicing, and abusive transfer pricing; criminal activities, including the drug trade, human trafficking, illegal arms dealing and smuggling of contraband; and bribery and theft by corrupt government officials." Further notable is that analysis of the impact of IFFs on development usually tends to marginalize migrant (“a person outside of a State of which they are a citizen or national, or in the case of a stateless person or person of undetermined nationality, their State of birth or habitual residence”) communities in its theorization or empiricism. That is partly because contemporary development studies fail to recognize the relationship between IFFs and migrants’ right to development. Therefore, this essay is an early-stage critical theorization and a call to action for scholars to theorize the relationship between IFFs and migrant rights to development.

Contributors to the symposium offer unique perspectives and draw on different theoretical and methodological approaches to the practice and scholarship related to IFFs in African states and beyond. Several themes were addressed by the contributors, including tax justice, technology, corruption, accountability, political will, repatriation, recovery of Assets, migration, whistleblowing, international investment, and real estate.

Applications are invited from suitable postdoctoral researchers (or near PhD completion Candidates) to work on a project with Dr Gregory Messenger on sustainable development and trade at the University of Bristol.

The News and Events category publishes the latest News and Events relating to International Economic Law relating to Africa and the Global South. Every week, Afronomicslaw.org receive the News and Events in their e-mail accounts. The News and Events published every week include conferences, major developments in the field of International Economic Law in Africa at the national, sub-regional and regional levels, as well as relevant case law. News and Events with a Global South focus are also often included.