Law and Economic Policy

Within a broad frame addressing the interactions between law and economic policy generally, this project seeks to explore the possible ways in which human rights law may place legal, theoretical and discursive limits on public economic policy.

People sitting at a table

The project is informed by long-standing debates in fields such as ‘law and development’, ‘law and economics’ and ‘law and neoliberalism’. The intention is to investigate ways in which human rights law (and socio-economic rights in particular) may better realise its transformative and emancipatory potentials through in-depth interdisciplinary work, addressing the connections between this body of law and various non-mainstream strands of economic theory, such as heterodox, feminist, institutional, ecological and welfare economics. This underlying theoretical work is then applied to specific economic policies and policy fields of high importance and relevance to today’s societies. Such policy fields include, foreign investment, competition law and policy, international financial institutions, health and economic policy, and the management of natural resources. Future directions include application in the broad field of transnational financing for development.

Project outputs

  • Publications
    • Curtis J, Human Rights and Foreign Investment: Visions of Cooperation and Coherence in Global Law-Making (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2024)
    • Curtis J, ‘Socio-Economic Rights, Competition and Systemic Neutrality; Approaching the Right(s) Contribution to Emancipatory Social Movements’ (2023) 30 Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 1
    • Curtis J, de Moerloose S, Erdem Türkelli G, ‘Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations and International Financial Institutions’, in Gibney, Erdem Türkelli, Krajewski, and Vandenhole, eds, The Routledge Handbook on Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations (Routledge 2022)
    • Garde A, Curtis J, De Schutter O, eds, Ending Childhood Obesity A Challenge at the Crossroads of International Economic and Human Rights Law (Edward Elgar Publishing 2020)
    • Curtis J, ‘The U.S. Economic Polity, Social Identity, and International Human Rights’ (2016) 32 Sociological Forum 1
    • Curtis J, ‘Merging Socio-Economic Rights and Heterodox Economics: Emancipatory and Transformative Potentials’, Series on Economics and Law in Conversation, Laboratory for Advanced Research on the Global Economy, Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE, 2016
    • Balakrishnan R and Curtis J, ‘Advancing Human Rights Through Economics’, Series on Economics and Law in Conversation, Laboratory for Advanced Research on the Global Economy, Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE, 2016
    • Chang H-J and Curtis J, ‘History, Law and the Myth of Economic Neutrality’, Series on Economics and Law in Conversation, Laboratory for Advanced Research on the Global Economy, Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE, 2016 
    • Somers M and Curtis J, ‘Socially Embedding the Market and the Role of Law’, Series on Economics and Law in Conversation, Laboratory for Advanced Research on the Global Economy, Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE, 2016
    • Curtis J, ‘The Economics of Necessity: Human Rights and Ireland's Natural Resources’ (2012) 7 Irish Yearbook of International Law

  • Teaching
    • Law and Social Justice: Human Rights and Economic Policy - 2nd Year LLB, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
    • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - LLM, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland
    • Interdisciplinary and Mixed Doctoral Research Methodologies - PhD, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany