Professor Alessandrini Kent Law School

Kent Professor awarded £162k for unique analysis of world trade law

Kent Law School Professor Donatella Alessandrini has been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship worth more than £162,000 for a unique research project analysing the role of world trade law in the generation and distribution of economic rewards between and within countries.

The one-year project ‘A Reverse Robin Hood? Analysing the effects of world trade law on the transnational distribution of economic value’, will offer the first sustained legal analysis of the World Trade Organisation’s contribution to the proliferation of Global Value Chains (GVCs) and to the unequal distribution of the economic value along the chains.

Drawing on socio-legal studies, world system theories and feminist economics, the project will explore how trade law brings GVCs into being, helping to create and distribute economic rewards transnationally.

Professor Alessandrini said: ‘The manufacture of products with inputs sourced from around the world dates back centuries. However, the pace, range and intensity of interactions in so-called ‘Global Value Chains’ is changing rapidly, with significant consequences for the people and companies involved. The law of the WTO has played a vital, yet hitherto unexplored, role in this process.’

The project will run from September 2019 to September 2020.

Professor Alessandrini is Co-Deputy Head at Kent Law School. She is also Co-Director of the Social Critiques of Law Centre (SoCriL).