Please help me get the word out about the new websites for Legal Theory Blog and the Legal Theory Lexicon. Reposting here and on other social media sites is great. It would be especially helpful if law school faculty members could send an email to their colleagues with the new addresses.
I agree; and with the additional burden of having to check all forthcoming citations before the article goes into production in case the forthcoming articles are now included in an issue . . .
Screenshot from OSCOLA (4th. ed. Hart Publishing) page 38 showing Rule 3.3.3 to rule 3.3.5 on citing forthcoming articles.
They use OSCOLA, right? The 'forthcoming' word is correct in OSCOLA.
Thanks for linking this paper. Excited to read it, especially the aspects on civil recourse & the state!
Indeed, the 'empowerment' aspect of civil recourse is quite useful (in Part IV.A). However, reliance on it in transnational contexts inevitably leads to problematic questions like 'Which state?'
Excited to share my job talk paper "Postcolonial Private Law" now on SSRN where I bring international law into conversation with private law theory in arguing for empowering Global South people as rightsholders in transnational supply chains.
Thanks for the shout-out @lsolum.bsky.social!
Oh no! Hope you are alright!
I show a postcolonial future endogenous to private law. I reconceptualize private law subjects as real people embedded in neocolonial power structures, demonstrating private law's potential through adjudicatory tools like Alien Tort Statute claims and emerging HRDD laws that empower individuals.
Problem? International law has embraced a postcolonial ideal that focuses on redistributing wealth or on political struggles and neglects individuals as individuals. Meanwhile, private law theory embraces abstract agents who are fictional equals and neglects real people.
The novelty: I argue that postcolonial struggles against corporate exploitation should move from the abstract realm of international law (focused on wealth redistribution between states) to the immediate, tangible site of private law, focusing on interpersonal justice for farmers, miners, workers.
Ever wondered how TWAIL and private law theory can benefit each other? I am excited to share my job market paper, “Postcolonial Private Law,” forthcoming in Brooklyn Law Review (Vol. 91) and now available on SSRN.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
No problem! I have not personally had it but I know people who have used it. The subscriptions are great and you can access almost all of them via a proxy service they have, as far as I remember.
Peace Palace Library membership has online access!
peacepalacelibrary.nl/library-memb...
Looking forward to continue reading your wonderful work! Hope you're doing well (and celebrating properly!).
Congrats León! This is amazing news! 🎉
Bose on Human Rights Due Diligence and Marginalization, buff.ly/qQT6a9j - Debadatta Bose (University of California, Berkeley - School of Law) has posted Are there Humans in Human Rights Due Diligence? on SSRN.
2/2 HRDD laws grant incredible power to companies to select who stakeholders are, how they are engaged with (if at all), when they are engaged with, etc. I cover the Norwegian, French, German laws and EU CS3D (which is the only exception by incorporating actual stakeholder engagement provisions).
1/2 Are there humans in human rights due diligence?
Read my latest draft paper on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
I argue there that HRDD laws entrench the marginalization of people whose human rights they ostensibly protect by focusing on stakeholder engagement clauses.
2/2 For years, gig giants used “freedom” rhetoric to deny workers minimum wage, social security, and sick pay. Next: negotiations in 2026 to define the treaty’s scope. The era of global minimum floors for labor rights is near—can labor anti-avoidance rules be conceptualized soon?
1/2 🚨 Big news from Geneva: The ILO just voted to create a Convention on gig workers! This could mark the beginning of the end for “creative contracting” and misclassification—issues I highlighted in my Verfassungsblog piece.
3/3
🛑 The fix? Labor anti-avoidance rules (like tax law’s GAAR) to rethink sham self-employment.
A global legal floor for labor rights could:
- Block contractual workarounds that violate human rights
- Treat labor avoidance like tax evasion
Should contractual freedom have human rights limits?
2/3
💡 Human Rights Watch's “Gig Trap” report reveals:
- Most platform workers can’t afford basic needs
- Algorithms enforce opaque working conditions
- Few penalties for companies dodging labor laws
This isn’t innovation—it’s structured exploitation. Report: www.hrw.org/report/2025/...
1/3
🚨 Gig giants use “independent contractor” labels to strip wages, sick pay, and social security—while admitting in filings that reclassification would gut their profits.
In the Verfassungsblog, I break down this practice. Time for labor anti-avoidance rules?
verfassungsblog.de/internationa...
What do calls for decolonial futures mean when articulated through international law?
Limited places at our workshop, 5-6 June. @uvalawschool.bsky.social
Organised by @kanadbagchi.bsky.social, @dbose.bsky.social, @lyskulamadayil.bsky.social & @tim-lindgren.bsky.social
acil.uva.nl/content/even...
4/4 Begum marks a shift from the traditional US and UK interpretation of contracts as purely bilateral and economic instruments. It scrutinizes ordinary business dealings as decisions that affect human rights beyond contractual relationships which seem exclusively bilateral.
3/4 The chapter focuses on the UK case of Begum v Maran, which introduces a principle of Global Value Chain liability. This case potentially holds a corporation liable for harms in a Bangladeshi shipyard where a ship it sold was demolished. 'Potentially' because the case was settled before trial.
2/4 The chapter presents a two-pronged argument:
◾Irresponsible contracting is a tortious act
◾The tortious nature of such contracting means that contracting itself is circumscribed by tort law
1/4 Excited to share my latest draft chapter, called 'The Tort of Irresponsible Contracting', now available on SSRN! It challenges the notion that business decisions are isolated from human rights considerations.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
OMG congratulations! Now I feel worse having moved away from Tilburg ...
Of course, @shaunamc.bsky.social has very generously created one!
bsky.app/profile/shau...
