James Thuo Gathii Wing-Tat Lee Chair in International Law
Advancing international law—when many countries seem to be abandoning it
GATHII'S AREAS OF EXPERTISE: international law, international economic law, and human rights
INFLUENCE: A founding member of the Third World Approaches to International Law network, Gathii focuses on amplifying, centering, and making visible voices from the Global South.
AFRONOMICSLAW TAKES OFF: In early 2019—a time when international trade discussions were lopsidedly focused on the U.S. and China or the U.S. and Europe—Gathii and Dalhousie University’s Olabisi Akinkugbe established AfronomicsLaw.org. “We created this blog very consciously to be an inclusive alternative forum where participants can quickly and contemporaneously reflect,” Gathii says.
“This is a moment of repudiation of international law and of reckoning with racial injustice and committing to anti-racism.”
LEADING LECTURER: Gathii delivered the prestigious Grotius Lecture, “The Promise of International Law: A Third World View,” at the 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law. The well-received lecture has been downloaded more than800 times on SSRN.
NEXT UP: A new book edited by Gathii, The Performance of Africa’s International Courts: Using Litigation for Political, Legal, and Social Change, will be published by Oxford University Press in December. “Africa’s international courts have important impacts that have so far been underemphasized or entirely ignored” by Europe or North America-centered perspectives, Gathii says. Litigation in these courts is important, he says, in the pursuit of people’s personal and political freedoms.
