Law and Justice Reform: Learning from Intermediaries in Myanmar and Beyond
Location:
Virtual Event
Date/time
Thu 11 November 2021
12:30-13:30
The Political Settlements Research Programme
Law and Justice Reform: Learning from Intermediaries in Myanmar and Beyond
About the event
In this Peace Talks webinar, Dr. Kristina Simion will introduce key policy findings from her newly published book “Rule of Law Intermediaries: Brokering Influence in Myanmar“. Focusing on the decade of Myanmar’s political transformation, and drawing on rich in-country empirical data, the book explores the role and influence of brokers and intermediaries in shaping the form and substance of law and justice reform.
Building on these findings, Dr Monalisa Adhikari (Keele University/PeaceRep) and Dr Pilar Domingo (Overseas Development Institute), and Dr Deval Desai will begin a broader discussion on the policy and practice implications for those concerned with governance in Myanmar, and with law and justice reform in authoritarian contexts more broadly.
This event is part of the Peace Talks webinar series from PeaceRep, the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform based at Edinburgh Law School. The event is co-hosted by PeaceRep and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).
Speaker Profiles
Dr Kristina Simion is a Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs’ Asia Programme. Her research concerns Myanmar and Southeast Asia where she focuses on state recognition and global relationships formed through bilateral and multilateral development. As a trained socio-legal scholar she is interested in parallel structures and the people that inhabit the ‘relational state’. Kristina is also a specialist in the Swedish government, focusing on rule of law development assistance and Myanmar. She is a visiting fellow at the Department of Political & Social Change, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. She designed and delivers the course ‘Law, Culture and Society in Asia’ as part of Stockholm University’s Master Program in Global Asian Studies.
Dr Pilar Domingo is a Senior Research Fellow at ODI. She leads research on the political economy of rule of law, justice and legal empowerment, including in conflict affected settings. She is also interested in the international practice of rule of law and justice programming, in the context of a changing policy landscape on these issues, and in connecting up these often siloed discussions to wider questions related to the challenges of advancing inclusive and accountable governance, and addressing structural inequalities and exclusion.
Dr Monalisa Adhikari is a Lecturer in International Relations at the School of Social, Political and Global Studies, Keele University. Prior to joining Keele, she was a Research Fellow with the Political Settlements Research Programme at the University of Edinburgh. She obtained her PhD in International Relations from the University of Edinburgh in 2020. Her primary research interests include peace processes, international interventions in fragile and conflict-affected states, rising powers engagement in the global governance of peace and security, and foreign policies of India and China. She has conducted research in China, India, Myanmar and Nepal.
Dr Deval Desai is Lecturer in International Economic Law at Edinburgh Law School. His work focuses on law and development, administrative law and regulation, theories of the state, and (de)colonial patterns of knowledge and authority. He has taught on these topics on the European Joint Doctorate in Law and Development; the interdisciplinary masters programs at the Graduate Institute, Geneva; Harvard’s Institute for Global Law and Policy; and as a visiting professor at Manchester, Northeastern Law School, SOAS, and the Universidad de los Andes.
Image credit: Photo by Nguyen Tran on Unsplash