Category: General
A legitimacy critique of the usage of IFC Performance Standards (2012) in relation to human rights by development financiers and agencies
At the Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa Workshop, Prof. Dr Thoko Kaime presented on the legitimacy critique as a method in legal scholarship, from which we derived our inspiration for this contribution on the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability. These IFC PSs are widely treated as the…
Global tug of war in international negotiations: Global South and North standpoints on victimhood in the draft legally binding instrument
The workshop Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa brought together scholars and participants to reflect on legal methods, critical perspectives, decolonial approaches, and the relationship between research in human rights and sustainable development. For us, as doctoral researchers working on business and human rights from within the legal discipline, one central question kept returning…
Revisiting ICC Convictions as a Manifestation of Power Asymmetries in Public International Law in 2026?
Introduction The workshop “Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa: Legal Methods, Critical Perspectives, Decolonial Approaches in the Context of Human Rights, Sustainable Development” featured a presentation by Prof. Dr Thoko Kaime on “Legitimacy Critique as Method: African Decolonial Perspectives in Public International Law.” Kaime highlighted how public international law (PIL) is viewed through African…
A case for African perspectives in Law and Anthropology: beyond data and disciplinary boundaries
Introduction Emerging from the workshop Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa: Legal Methods, Critical Perspectives, and Decolonial Approaches in the Context of Human Rights and Sustainable Development, this jointly developed contribution is authored by four workshop participants. We are all in our doctoral or postdoctoral phase, trained in law across different geographical contexts and…
Moving Beyond Positivism and Western-Centric Thinking in Francophone Legal Academia
Decolonising legal methods begins with questioning what legal scholarship allows itself to see as law. The challenge extends beyond simply diversifying legal objects or recognising legal pluralism. It ultimately requires asking a more fundamental question: what legal experiences count as law, and which methods are considered legitimate to study them? In France and across parts…
Symposium Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa: Setting the stage
Introduction Welcome to the Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa blog symposium where the africanlegalstudies.blog and the Law and Development Conversations Blog join forces! This symposium emerged from the early career workshop Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa: Legal Methods, Critical Perspectives, and Decolonial Approaches in the Context of Human Rights and Sustainable…
Los compases inmortales de El Danubio Azul: una mirada de resistencia y dignidad humana en clave de vals
A propósito del profundo interés de Koen De Feyter por la literatura, la música y el cine, y de su intrínseca relación con los derechos humanos y la justicia social, recordé una de mis obras literarias favoritas: “La bailarina de Auschwitz”. Su autora, Edith Eger –psicóloga, bailarina y superviviente del Holocausto– falleció el pasado 27…
The Imperative of Extraterritorial Obligations in the Era of Geoengineering
As current trajectories indicate that the goals of the Paris Agreement are unlikely to be achieved, public attention is shifting towards new forms of climate policy, such as geoengineering.[1] While there are different geoengineering technologies being explored, Solar Radiation Management (SRM) is particularly controversial. SRM technologies aim to counteract global warming by intervening directly in…
Ports are not edges: a decolonial zine on labour, method and knowing otherwise
The port is not a neutral site I went to the Ports of Antwerp, Shanghai, and the San Pedro Bay complex (Los Angeles and Long Beach) to study labour. My initial imagination of a port was shaped by dominant literature: ports as infrastructures, logistics zones, sites of flow, places of movement, and economic exchange.[1] But…
Power Through Law: Rethinking Financial Governance
Law in Financial Governance Debates on financial governance are often framed in terms of macroeconomic variables, technical capacity, and institutional insulation from political influence. Law typically appears in this literature as a background condition: either as a set of formal constraints that incentivise or restrict policy action, or as a technical apparatus that stabilises market…