Neoliberalism and the Law after Covid

The discussions in this webinar will revolve around the following issues:

• How biased is efficiency as a standard for welfare?: Efficiency (acting through strong property rights, deregulation and private contracts) has been touted as the best means to increase overall welfare. But has this approach worked? How will efficiency ensure overall welfare when resources themselves are unequally distributed and remain captured by few? Can efficiency resolve systematic issues like gender inequality, class inequality, caste inequality and so on?

• Neoliberalism’s Capture of Environmental Law: Neoliberalism has often targeted environmental regulations, classifying them as ineffective and characterizing them as an obstacle to commerce and industry. Many governments, including in India, have bought into these arguments. Recent changes to Environmental Impact Assessment is an example of this. Does this approach work when it comes to the environment? What are the legal options to limit such changes?

• Neoliberal Constitutionalism: With time neoliberalism has permeated into the sphere of constitutional law. While constitutional principles should revolve around protecting life, liberty and dignity, the focus in recent times has been on ensuring growth and development. What are its consequences? And what is the way forward?

Prof. Nayanika Mathur would be in conversation with Prof. Philippe Cullet and Prof. Rashmi Venkatesan for this webinar.

About the Speakers

• Prof. Mathur is an Associate Professor at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, Oxford University. She has extensively worked on bureaucracy, welfare, and techniques of government in South Asia, including studies on the intersection of technocracy and politics. She is also the author of Paper Tiger: Law Bureaucracy and the Developmental State in Himalayan India, which was the recipient of Sharon Stephens Prize awarded by American Ethnological Society for a first book. Her second book Crooked Cats: Human-Big Cat Entanglements in the Anthropocene, is due to be published this year.

• Dr Cullet is Professor of international and environmental law. He came to teach at SOAS with qualifications in law and development studies from Geneva University, London (King’s College and SOAS) and Stanford University. His main areas of interest include environmental law, natural resources, human rights and the socio-economic aspects of intellectual property. He works on these at the international level and in India. His monographs include Water Law, Poverty and Development – Water Law Reforms in India (2009), Intellectual Property Protection and Sustainable Development (2005) and Differential Treatment in International Environmental Law (2003).

• Prof. Venkatesan teaches courses on Law, Poverty and Development, Human Rights Law and Business and Human Rights. An alumnus of NLSIU, she graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London with an LLM in International Economic Law. Her areas of research and engagement have been broadly in the field of development policies and its impact, labour rights, global economic laws and human rights. She brings with her unique experience of nearly a decade as a legal practitioner having worked with an array of different organisations; law firms, NGOs, international organisations and civil society organisations.

Structure and Time

• 22nd August: Three written blog posts on the three topics, authored by graduates of India's foremost lawschools, will be released as part of our blog symposium on www.lawschoolpolicyreview.com.
• 23rd August: The webinar will be held from 14:30-16:30 PM. The speakers will be speaking for 1 hour, followed by an hour of QnA session.