Perspectives for Post-COVID 19 Recovery and Sustainable Development

This one-day hybrid workshop will consider the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic globally and the strategies for recovery:

Theme: Perspectives for Post-COVID 19 Recovery and Sustainable Development: A Law and Development Discourse

Date: Thursday, 15th September 2022

Time: 10:00 - 17:15 (British Summer Time) GMT+1

The workshop is funded by the Society of Legal Scholars Small Projects and Events Fund.

This is a free event, including lunch and refreshments  (however attendees must be registered to attend the event and would have to indicate that they are attending in person to ensure adequate arrangements) 

The Project:

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly all aspects of human lives, healthcare, the economy, and the environment all over the globe. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the pandemic ‘…has exposed persistent inequalities by income age, race, sex, and geographic location (World Health Organisation, 2021).

The periods of lockdowns and the challenges faced highlighted the need for the protection of specific people groups including LGBTI, the elderly, persons from minority communities and persons with disabilities. COVID 19 has placed undue pressure on healthcare services around the world. There have been reports that the numbers of confirmed cases and deaths were vastly underestimated especially during the first and second waves of the pandemic. There were challenges with tests and tracing as well as with the enforcement of lockdown in some parts of the world, especially in countries in the Global South where adequate relief was not provided for citizens who were being mandated to remain in lockdown from March to May 2020. The lockdown in some parts of the world brought significant hardships with the closure of businesses such as restaurants and the ban on international travel.

With less than eight years to the 2030 target for the United Nations (U) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is a need to play catch up given the pandemic has set the entire globe backwards. The Workshop aims to propose strategies for global recovery post-COVID 19 as the world works toward attaining Agenda 2030. The workshop will consider what role law and legal frameworks can play toward global recovery, especially in law and economic development, law and technology, law and the environment, intellectual property law, and human rights law. Speakers are drawn from different global contexts that have engaged in discussions in this area of law and practice. The focus will be to suggest proposals to policymakers on ways to approach the recovery process.

At the conclusion of the workshop, the plan is to produce an edited volume/book with contributions from the participants at the workshop. The organisers are in discussions with potential commissioning editors. The call for papers was published to a wide audience using the website of the Society of Legal Scholars, University of Roehampton, Nottingham Trent University, Afronomics Blog and social media. The organisers intend to use the workshop to create a forum to network with other academics and practitioners and foster a community of colleagues interested in the intersection between law and economic development.

Law and development are areas that are gaining considerable attention in universities around the world. With the need to steer research towards the development of communities, the organisers consider that the workshop would contribute to that regard. Also, the workshop will create a forum to address current global challenges.

We look forward to hosting you!

Dr Augustine Arimoro – augustine.arimoro@roehampton.ac.uk

Dr Ezinne Igbokwe – ezinne.igbokwe@ntu.ac.uk

August 2022

Workshop Organisers:

Dr Augustine Arimoro

Dr Augustine Arimoro is a Lecturer at the Roehampton Law School, the University of Roehampton London where he convenes the Criminal Law and Public Law modules. Before joining the University of Roehampton London in January 2022, Dr Arimoro was a Lecturer at the Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University, UK. Dr Arimoro holds the LLB, LLM and PhD degrees from Universities in Nigeria, South Africa and the UK. He is a solicitor and barrister of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and a member of the Nigerian Bar Association as well as the Society of Legal Scholars. He has contributed several articles to leading peer-reviewed journals. He is the author of Public-Private Partnerships in Emerging Economies, a monograph published by Routledge in 2020. Before taking up a career in academics, Dr Arimoro was a Wealth Advisor with Asset and Resource Management Co Ltd, one of Africa’s leading non-banking financial institutions.

 

Dr Ezinne Igbokwe

Dr Ezinne Igbokwe is a Lecturer at the Nottingham Law School of the Nottingham Trent University UK. She convenes Intellectual Property Law (IPL), Contract Law, Public Law and Artificial Intelligence and Law modules. Ezinne holds LLB, LLM and PhD degrees from Universities in Nigeria, France, and the UK respectively. Her research focuses on intellectual property law, pharmaceutical patenting, and access to medicine as it intercepts with international trade and artificial intelligence and IP.

 

 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Professor Onyeka K Osuji, University of Essex

Professor Onyeka K Osuji a Professor of Law and Head of the School of Law, University of Essex, UK. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Advisory Board of the Social Responsibility Journal. While he has made significant contributions to legal scholarship, the interdisciplinary nature of the subjects of Professor Osuji’s research and publications shows a wider range of scholarly contributions. He has presented papers at several international conferences and has published extensively in books and reputable international journals. Professor Osuji obtained a PhD in law from the University of Manchester (as a School of Law Scholar) and a BCL (Law) from the University of Oxford (as a Shell Centenary/FCO Chevening Scholar). He has an LLB from the University of Nigeria where he graduated as the Best Student of the Faculty of Law. He also has a barrister-at-law licentiate degree from the Nigerian Law School and was awarded the Best Overall Performance (Second Prize) and two prizes in Legal Drafting and Conveyancing. Professor Osuji previously practised in corporate and commercial law before becoming an academic. He is a qualified barrister and solicitor of Nigeria and a (non-practising) solicitor of England and Wales and has advised individuals, corporations, and national and international governmental and non-governmental organisations.

 

Title of Keynote Paper: Asymmetrical International Economic System, Law ‘Institutions’ and Sustainable Development – Public Health Illumination of Pitfalls for All

Abstract:

The paper argues that the embeddedness of ‘lifeboat ethics’ in the contemporary international economic system propped up by some areas of law is not suited for sustainable development. Using the notion of ‘institutions’ as a conceptual framework, it underscores the roles of contract law, tort law, corporate law, international human rights law, international investment law and international economic law as well as adjudication rules in national courts and international dispute resolution in constructing an asymmetrical international economic system.  While it argues that public health demonstrates the unsustainability of the international economic system, the paper makes a case for reengineering the legal foundations of the system by integrating the social contract theory and recognising the interconnectedness of sustainable development and key areas of law. 

 

Time: 11:00 – 10:25 (BST) Joining Link: [Meeting Link A]

 

 

Prof Damilola Olawuyi, SAN, Hamad Bin Khalifa University Doha, Qatar

Professor Damilola S. Olawuyi, SAN is a professor and holder of the UNESCO Chair on Environmental Law and Sustainable Development at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar. He is also chancellor’s fellow at the Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (OGEES Institute), Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. In 2022, he was appointed as an Independent Expert on the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights. Prior to this, he served as an Independent Expert on the African Union’s Working Group on extractive industries, environment, and human rights violations in Africa. A prolific and highly regarded scholar, Professor Olawuyi has published over 150 influential peer-reviewed articles, books, and reports on energy finance, sustainable development law and extractive resource governance. His most recent book publications include: Environmental Law in Arab States (Oxford University Press, 2022), Local Content and Sustainable Development in Global Energy Markets (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Extractives Industry Law in Africa (Springer 2018), The Human Rights Based Approach to Carbon Finance (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and Climate Change Law and Policy in the Middle East and North Africa Region (Routledge, 2021). Professor Olawuyi was formerly an international energy lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, Calgary, where he served on the firm’s global committee on extractive resource investments in Africa. He has lectured on energy and environmental law in over 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. Professor Olawuyi serves on the executive committees and boards of several organizations. He is Vice Chair of the International Law Association globally. In recognition of his "substantial contribution to legal scholarship and jurisprudence," Professor Olawuyi was awarded the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (Queen's Counsel equivalent) in the year 2020, aged thirty-seven, therefore becoming the youngest academic ever elevated to the rank. In 2021, he was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as a member of the Governing Board of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).

Professor Olawuyi is a regular media commentator on all aspects of natural resources, energy and environmental law.

Title of Keynote Paper: The Systems Approach to COVID-19 Response and Recovery: Challenges, Opportunities, and Ways Forward

Abstract:

The widespread impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have constrained economic, social and environmental development and progress in many parts of the world. In addition to the significant revenue decline and increased healthcare costs witnessed globally, the development and deployment of low-carbon and sustainable energy projects such as wind turbines, solar panels and batteries, have faced increased uncertainty due to pandemic-related delays and disruptions. Despite the systemic implications of the pandemic for the progressive attainment of all of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), responses to the pandemic remain sectoral and piecemeal in many parts of the world. This presentation discusses the urgent need for a systems approach in the design and implementation of COVID-19 response and recovery programs.  It examines the legal and governance aspects of integrating and implementing the systems approach in practice.  Various legal and institutional challenges that arise with the systems approach will be unpacked in order to clarify ways in which imaginative and integrative legal frameworks can help close these gaps.

Time: 12:35 -13:00 (BST) (GMT+1)  Joining Link: [Meeting Link A]

Professor David M Ong, Nottingham Trent University

David M Ong is Professor of International & Environmental Law at Nottingham Trent University, UK.  His main research interests are in the following three fields of International Law: the Law of the Sea, International Environmental Law, and International Energy Investment & Development Finance Law, within which he has published in the highest-ranked academic law journals and edited volume collections by eminent academic publishers, four of which he has co-edited.  A major aspect of his research has focused on the interaction between applicable international and national legal regimes in the marine environmental space, as evidenced by major contributions to edited volumes published by the pre-eminent UK and international research institutions in these fields, notably, the British Institute of International & Comparative Law (BIICL) and the International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI) based in Malta.  

Title of Paper: Post-Covid Recovery Infrastructure Development Funding as a Catalyst for Zero Carbon Energy Source Transition in Developing Economies

Abstract:

Given the increased propensity for climate change-induced, zoonotic (animal to human) transmission of infectious diseases, this contribution will examine the role of post-Covid recovery, Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) infrastructure development funding for developing economies to meet their climate change targets and thereby also help to prevent future pandemics. At the same time, the need to meet the global Climate Change regime target has stimulated an international and transnational trend towards Net Zero Carbon Emission Targets, which has in-turn created an impetus for energy source transition away from fossil fuels. An international obligation for net zero carbon energy source transition would have significant implications for developing economies, notwithstanding their Common but Differentiated Responsibilities under the international law for sustainable development. Specifically, how far can any emerging international obligation to transition energy sources away from fossil-fuels be balanced against the common but differentiated responsibilities of developing economies to achieve the global climate change regime target. Within this context, what is the role of international development finance law in building infrastructure capacity within developing economies to ensure such energy source transition to assist them in meeting their National Determined Contributions (NDCs) toward the global climate change regime target, and thereby also reducing the risk of future pandemics due to extreme climate change impacts. 

Time: 15:00 – 15:25 (BST)(GMT+1) Joining Link: [Meeting Link A]

 

 The full programme is available upon request. Please email: augustine.arimoro@roehampton.ac.uk