Roundtable “Achieving a Just and Sustainable Future in the Global South”

SYNOPSIS

The term ‘sustainable development’ has become a popular buzzword which has captured the attention of, inter alios, governments, economic forums, aid agencies, and development practitioners to varying degrees. The widespread support for sustainable development marks an important shift in the development paradigm which recognises the inherent link between people and the planet. Yet sustainable development has been contextualised very differently along North – South lines, with developed countries broadly interpreting sustainable development as a need to pursue greater environmental conservation and developing countries pushing for greater intra-generational equity and poverty alleviation. The tensions between the North and South around responsibilities and power in the global economic order have led to setbacks, in particular around implementation. This Roundtable therefore investigates the role of trade and investment in achieving sustainable development, with focus on legal challenges in developing countries. 

PROGRAMME

CHAIR

Associate Professor Liu Nengye
Yong Pung How School of Law
Singapore Management University

Dr Liu Nengye (LLB & LLM, Wuhan, PhD, Ghent) is Associate Professor of Law at the Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University. Prior to moving to Singapore, he used to teach at three Australian universities (UNE, Adelaide and Macquarie). Assoc Prof Liu is an internationally recognised authority in the fields of the law of the sea and international environmental law. Over the past decade, Assoc Prof LIU has taken the lead to edit two books: “The European Union and the Arctic” (Brill, 2017), “Governing Marine Living Resources in the Polar Regions” (Edward Elgar, 2019); published 40+ refereed journal articles (e.g., Leiden Journal of International Law, Marine Policy, Ocean Development and International Law, International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Review of European, Comparative and International Environmental Law, International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law) and book chapters (e.g. Cambridge University Press, Routledge, Hart); and delivered 100+ presentations about his research findings across five continents. He is regularly covered by mainstream media around the world, such as BBC, ABC News, The Atlantic, Xinhua, Strait Times and South China Morning Post. Since 2021, he has been serving as Co-Chair of American Society of International Law’s International Environmental Law Interest Group as well as Member of the Governing Board, IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. He also sits on the editorial board of Marine Policy (Elsevier, IF=4.173) and Ocean Development and International Law (Taylor & Francis, IF=1.541).
 

DISCUSSANTS

Professor Shawkat Alam
Professor of International and Environmental Law
Macquarie University

Dr Shawkat Alam is a Professor of International and Environmental Law at Macquarie Law School, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Dr Alam holds an LLB with Honours from Rajshahi University, an LLM from Dhaka University and a PhD from Macquarie University. Prof Alam's primary teaching and research expertise lies in the areas of international law, international environmental law, trade and environment law, human rights and sustainable development. His research focuses on the opportunities and challenges faced by developing economies to achieve sustainable development by examining international legal, institutional and policy frameworks. His PhD thesis, Ecologically Sustainable Development and Free Trade: Pressing Issues for Developing Countries examined the impact of international and regional trade law on the environment through the lens of the Global South, where he has since contributed and has become a leading voice in this area of international trade law. Prof Shawkat Alam has written and edited several monographs including, for example, The Law and Politics of Transnational Forest Governance (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press, 2022), Investment Protection, Human Rights and Biodiversity Conservation (forthcoming, Routledge, 2022), International Natural Resources Law, Investment and Sustainability (Routledge, 2017), International Environmental Law and the Global South (Cambridge University Press, 2016), International Trade Law and the WTO (Federation Press, 2013), Routledge Handbook of International Environmental Law (Routledge, 2012), Globalisation and the Quest for Social and Environmental Justice: The Relevance of International Law in an Evolving World Order (Routledge, 2010) and Sustainable Development and Free Trade: Institutional Approaches (Routledge, 2007). 
 

Associate Professor Michelle Lim
Yong Pung How School of Law
Singapore Management University

Dr Michelle Lim is an Associate Professor of Law at the Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University. Her interdisciplinary scholarship occurs at the intersection between biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods. Lim’s work focuses on futures-oriented biodiversity law research aimed at advancing equity and sustainability under conditions of unprecedented environmental change. She is increasingly interested in approaches which allows affective engagement with scholarship and explores ways which challenge the form of scholarship including through creative and imaginative means of expression (e.g. speculative fiction, poetry). Michelle was a fellow on the Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and an author of the IPBES/IPCC joint workshop report. She was awarded the 2021 Law Society of Australia New Zealand scholarly article publication prize for the paper: "Extinction: hidden in plain sight–Can stories of 'the last' unearth environmental law's unspeakable truth?" published in the Griffith Law Review.

Assistant Professor Stefanie Schacherer
Yong Pung How School of Law
Singapore Management University

Dr Stefanie Schacherer is Assistant Professor of Law at the Singapore Management University (SMU). Prior to joining SMU, she held positions as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore, and at the World Trade Institute, University of Bern. Dr Schacherer obtained a Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Geneva and the University of Vienna, and holds an LL.M. from King’s College London, and a Master and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Geneva.

Dr Schacherer has published widely on sustainable development and international investment law. Her monograph titled Sustainable Development in EU Foreign Investment Law was published in August 2021 with Brill Nijhoff. She is a member of the UNCITRAL Academic Forum on Investor-State Dispute Settlement and serves as an advisor to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).