Subcribe
25 June, 2010
Legal Empowerment: Practitioners' Perspectives
Date: Friday, June 25, 2010
Time: 1.15 pm - 2.30 pm
Venue: Conference Room D, Temporary North Lawn Building (TNLB)
UN Headquarters, New York
Use the link above to register to the event in New York
This event will include a simultaneous live, interactive webcast, for those who are not able to attend in person. Register here to access the webcast on the day of the event.***
As part of UNU Midday Forum Programme, the United Nations University Office at the UN, New York (UNU-ONY), in cooperation with the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), is organizing an event entitled "Legal Empowerment: Practitioners' Perspectives".
The newly published Legal Empowerment: Practitioners' Perspectives is a collection of articles on approaches to integrating justice and development in ways that benefit the poor and other disadvantaged populations. Edited by Stephen Golub, the book is part of the International Development Law Organization's book series "Lessons Learned: Narrative Accounts of Legal Reform in Developing and Transition Countries". Consistent with the animating question of this series, IDLO seeks to identify legal reform success stories and to try to understand what accounts for such favorable outcomes.
The event is part of the UNU Midday Forum Programme, which provides an intimate and informal platform of discussion for the UN Permanent Missions, the UN Secretariat, UN agencies, academia, NGOs and the private sector, to discuss and exchange ideas and experiences on important topics related to the UN.
- Mr. Thomas F. McInerney, Director of Research, Policy, and Strategic Initiatives for the International Development Law Organization in Rome.
- Mr. Stephen Golub, Consultant and Editor of the International Development Law Organization's Legal Empowerment Working Paper Series.
- Nina Berg, the Rule of Law and Justice Policy Adviser in the United Nations Development Programme
- Jean-Marc Coicaud, Director of United Nations University office at the UN, New York
Background Readings:
(UNU Policy Brief) Legality and Legitimacy in International Order (Pdf file)
(UNU Policy Brief) Vulnerability in Developing Countries (Pdf)
Speakers' Profiles
Mr. Thomas F. McInerney is Director of Research, Policy, and Strategic Initiatives for the International Development Law Organization in Rome. He develops and manages research on a range of law and development topics, directs the Organization's partnership with the United Nations, and leads strategic planning. McInerney joined IDLO in 2001, and initially served as General Counsel and Secretary, managing all legal and compliance activities during a period when the Organization's revenues quadrupled.
McInerney led the effort in 2008 to revamp IDLO's strategy, which is considered one of the most promising and innovative approaches in promoting the rule of law to further social and economic opportunity in developing and transitional countries. As part of the new strategy, he secured a $4 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for research on legal empowerment, forged working relationships with the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission and the United Nations Development Programme, and managed IDLO's partnership with the World Economic Forum's Partnering Against Corruption Initiative.
Prior to joining IDLO, McInerney practiced transactional corporate and securities law for four years with the law firms of Dorsey & Whitney LLP and Ross & Hardies in New York. Later, he served as Program Manager with Social Accountability International, a nongovernmental organization specializing in corporate social responsibility. In 2001, McInerney was an adjunct professor in the Department of Ethics and Law at Fordham University's School of Business in New York.
McInerney holds a Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University School of Law in Chicago, a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Loyola University of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science with Honors from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He is a member of the New York and Illinois bars, and reads and speaks French, Italian, and Spanish.
He actively publishes and speaks on topics such as legal and institutional reform in developing countries, corporate governance, corporate compliance practices, and corporate social responsibility.
Mr. Stephen Golub is Consultant and Editor of the International Development Law Organization's Legal Empowerment Working Paper Series. Stephen Golub plays a prominent role in legal empowerment policy. This includes: teaching courses featuring the topic at the University of California at Berkeley and Central European University; editing the upcoming International Development Law Organization book and the recent Hague Journal on the Rule of Law special section on the topic; and research, consulting and speaking on legal empowerment for the World Bank, UNDP, the Open Society Institute, Danida and other institutions. He also co-authored the 2001 ADB study that first articulated the concept and helped design the first and largest UNDP project on the topic, the Legal Empowerment and Assistance for Disadvantaged Project in Indonesia.
Nina Berg is the Rule of Law and Justice Policy Adviser in the United Nations Development Programme, Bureau for Development Policy, Democratic Governance Group, based in New York, USA. She is a lawyer working on issues relating to the protection and promotion of human rights, rule of law and access to justice. She continues to be engaged in issues related to women and the law. She has worked with justice reform programmes in southern Africa with the Norwegian Refugee Council in the aftermath of the Peace Agreement in Mozambique focusing on legal refugees and issues concerning internally displaced persons such as civil registration and legal identity. Previously to that she worked with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) Mozambique as the Gender Coordinator and before that as a researcher at the Women's Law Institute at the Faculty of Law of Oslo, Norway, focusing on informal justice systems and women's legal position and gender equality.
Massimo Tommasoli (Doctorat EHESS) is Permanent Observer for International IDEA to the United Nations. A development and democracy assistance specialist, he has been Director of Operations at International IDEA. Prior to that he led the Good Governance, Capacity Development and Conflict Prevention Unit of the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate, and worked at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNESCO. He has field experience in Africa, Latin America and Russia, and lectured at the Universities of Bergamo, Chieti, Pavia and the UN System Staff College. His latest book is "Le développement participatif", Karthala, Paris, 2004.
Moderator's profile
Jean-Marc Coicaud is the Director of the United Nations University (UNU) Office at the United Nations Headquarters (New York). He was Senior Academic Officer and Director of Studies at the UNU headquarters (Tokyo) from 1996 to 2003. From 1992 to 1996, he served in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General as a speechwriter for Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali. A former fellow at Harvard University (Center for International Affairs, Department of Philosophy and Harvard Law School, from 1986 to 1992), Coicaud has held appointments such as Cultural Attaché with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Legislative Aide with the European Parliament (Financial Committee). He has also been a Visiting Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure-Ulm in Paris and has taught at the New School for Social Research (New York). In addition, he has been a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (Washington, D.C.), a Global Research Fellow at New York University School of Law and a Visiting Scholar at the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University (Beijing). Coicaud holds a Ph.D. in Political Science-Law from the Sorbonne and a Doctorat d'Etat in philosophy from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques of Paris. He also holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in literature and linguistics.
Jean-Marc Coicaud has published 14 books in the fields of comparative politics, political and legal theory, international relations and international law. They are available in English, French, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Arabic, and include the following single-authored books: Légitimité et Politique (Presses Universitaires de France, 1997), Politics and Legitimacy: A Contribution to the Study of Political Right and Political Responsibility (Cambridge University Press, 2002), Beyond the National Interest (United States Institute of Peace Press, 2007), Kokuren no Genkai/Kokuren no Mirai (Future of the UN/Limits of the UN - Fujiwara Shoten, 2007), Mai Xiang Guo Ji Fa Zhi (Towards the International Rule of Law - Sanlian Shudian, 2008). His latest book, co-edited with Hilary Charlesworth, is Fault Lines of International Legitimacy (Cambridge University Press, 2009). Jean-Marc Coicaud is now finishing a new single-authored book, International Legitimacy and Global Justice.
Jean-Marc Coicaud is a member of the Advisory Board of the Carnegie Council's Global Policy Innovations (New York) and of the journal Global Policy (London). He also serves as an adviser for the Fondation pour l'Innovation Politique (Paris).
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Page last modified Last modified: June 21 2010 at 05:37:45 PM.
