Professor of law

Sabine Michalowski joined the University of Essex in 2000. She holds a German law degree, a Diploma in Comparative Law from the University Paris II and a PhD from the University of Sheffield. She has carried out extensive research on sovereign debt, with a particular focus on Latin America, resulting in the book Unconstitutional Regimes and the Validity of Sovereign Debt: A Legal Perspective (Ashgate, Aldershot 2007) and articles on the relationship between social rights and sovereign debt (eg 'Sovereign Debt and Social Rights-Legal Reflections on a Difficult Relationship' (2008) 8 Human Rights Law Review 35-68). Building on this research, she is working on economic dimensions of transitional justice, in particular the link between transitional justice and sovereign debt (see 'Ius cogens, transitional justice and other trends of the debate on odious debts - A Response to the World Bank Discussion Paper on Odious Debts', 48(1) Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 2009 (co-authored with Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky), and transitional justice and corporate complicity.

Recent Publications in Transitional Justice or related fields;

Sabine Michalowski (editor), Corporate Accountability in the Context of Transitional Justice, Routledge 2013 (forthcoming)

Sabine Michalowski, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky ‘Ius cogens, Transitional Justice and Other Trends of the Debate on Odious Debts: A Response to the World Bank Discussion Paper on Odious Debts’, 48(1) COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF TRANSNATIONAL LAW 61-120 (2009)

Hecht, Lisa; Michalowski, Sabine, The Economic and Social Dimensions of Transitional Justice, ETJN Concept Paper (2012), (published on the ETJN website)

Other work in Transitional Justice or related fields;

• June 2013 – organisation of an expert workshop on the implications of the US Supreme Court decision in Kiobel for business and human rights and transitional justice.
• May 2013 – The role of the private sector in the democratic transition: reflecting on the responsibility of economic actors and transitional justice in Tunisia, workshop organised by the UN OHCHR and the International Institute for Human Development (paper given as invited international expert).
• September 2012 – Commerce, Crime and Conflict: Rule of Law Promotion and the Private Sector, Expert Conference Criminal Justice and Accountability in Arab Spring Processes, Cairo, (audience of regional politicians, academics and transitional justice practitioners), organised by the Centre for International Peace Operations (invited speaker).
• Organisation of and teaching on First Essex Transitional Justice Network Summer School on Economic and Social Dimensions of Transitional Justice (September 2012, attended by a mix of policymakers, NGO practitioners, journalists and academics).
• September 2012 – Organisation of international research seminar at Essex on ‘Conceptualising the economic and social dimensions of transitional justice’, funded by the British Academy).