LAUNCH EVENT

 Dr Nauman Reayat, Convener GSN founded GSN by organising the launch event of the Global South Network that took place on Friday 17 March 2023 at Council Room Field Johnson Building. Staff, students, and practitioners of different gender, ethnicities, and career levels from 12 countries participated in the launch event.  Justice Ayesha Malik, Supreme Court of Pakistan virtually gave the keynote speech. This event was supported under ESRC Impact Acceleration Account 2019: Leicester (ES/T501967/1).

CONFERENCES

Dr Nauman Reayat, Convener GSN organised a hybrid conference on judicial independence in Africa on Wednesday 22 March 2023. 8 universities of four different countries focused on distinct aspects of judicial independence in 8 different jurisdictions of Africa. Justice Dr Rasul Oriyomi Olukolu, High Court Lagos, Nigeria gave the keynote speech and Justice Sainabou Wadda Cisse, Court of Appeal, Gambia was the guest speaker.This event was funded under ESRC Impact Acceleration Account 2019: Leicester (ES/T501967/1).

Dr Nauman Reayat, Convener GSN and Prof Hakeem Yusuf, Co-Convener, GSN organised a three-day hybrid international conference titled “Law, Society, and Academia in the Global South: Challenges and Prospects” in collaboration with the University of Ilorin, Nigeria on 27 -29 September 2023.

GUEST LECTURE SERIES

PHASE 1 (LECTURE SERIES OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH JUDGES)

Dr Nauman Reayat, Convener, GSN organised the following six guest lectures:

• Justice Aruna Devi Narain of Mauritius Supreme Court delivered a talk titled “75 Years of UN Declaration of Human Rights: Challenges and Opportunities for the Global South” on Friday 14 April 2023. Dr Nauman Reayat, Convener, GSN was the moderator.
  
  

• Honourable Dr Azmiralda Zahir, Justice Supreme Court of Maldives delivered  her online talk titled “Reinforcing Democratic Values Through Online Hearings – the Maldives Experience” on Monday 5th of June 2023. Dr Nauman Reayat, Convener, GSN was the moderator.
  
  

• Former Justice Mexican Supreme Court  Dr José Ramón Cossío Díaz delivered his online talk titled “Mexican Supreme Court of Justice: current goals and challenges” on 29 June 2023. Dr Nauman Reayat, Convener, GSN was the moderator.

• Former Afghanistan provincial court judge Mahtab Fazl will deliver her online talk on the challenges of female judges in fragile states: evidence from Afghanistan on 11 September 2023 at 11 am UK time. Dr Nauman Reayat, Convener, GSN was the moderator.

• Dr Nauman Reayat, Convener GSN organised the sixth guest lecture for the Global South Network (GSN).  Justice Steven A Majiedt, Constitutional Court of South Africa will deliver his talk  titled “Judicial Independence and Judicial Activism In the face of Transformative Constitutionalism: Legislative And Executive Inertia And Incapacity ” in person/face-to-face at Maurice Shock Building, Second Floor, Room 257, University of Leicester on Monday 30th of October 2023 at 4 pm UK time. 

Please write at globalsouthnetwork@leicester.ac.uk if you wish to attend the guest lecture series.

PUBLICATIONS

leading members of GSN Dr Nauman Reayat and Prof Hakeem Yusuf secured the contract for an edited collection on Judicial Independence and the Rule of Law in Africa from Springer.

Three leading members of the network, Dr Nauman Reayat, Prof Rhona Smith, School of Law, Newcastle University and Moohyung Cho, Department of Politics and International Relations, Ewa Woman’s University Korea secured a contract for an edited collection on judicial independence in transitional democracies from Routledge. The book involves staff from 15 law schools of seven different countries focusing on jurisdictions including but not limited to Hungary, Slovakia, China, South Korea, Philippines, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Mexico, Chile, and Japan. 

PHD IN PROGRESS SEMINAR SERIES

Dr Nauman Reayat, Convener, GSN organised first phase of weekly international, interdisciplinary, and online PhD in progress seminar from 9 May 2023 to 23 August 2023.  PhD candidate presented their project focusing on the issues of the Global South every Wednesday at 14:00 UK time. Students and staff from 8 disciplines, 21 universities, and 8 countries participated in the first phase. 

Dr Nauman Reayat, Convener, GSN organised the first phase of weekly international, interdisciplinary, and online PhD in progress seminar from 4 October 2023 to 5 December 2023.

The series aims to transfer knowledge and share good practices among the GSN members. The objectives are to provide PhD students from, or focusing on, the Global South showcase their research across the Global South, receive feedback, contribute to the development of academic culture of the Global South, and to network with potential partners for future research. 

 If any PhD candidate is interested in presenting their ongoing research project during one of the above seminars then please send me your brief bio, topic of the work, an abstract of 200 to 350 words discussing research problem/question, the gap in the wider literature on the topic, your main argument, methodology and your preliminary findings at globalsouthnetwork@leicester.ac.uk .  

Each seminar is one hour long. A PhD candidate presents for 20 to 25 minutes which is followed by discussion and questions and answers session.

BLOGS

Currently, PhD students/Early Career Academics (ECAs) from or working on the Global South have limited opportunities to engage with the general public. Blogs are a flexible way of engaging with the general public. In this regard, GSN provides its PhD candidates/ECAs members with an opportunity to submit a blog based on their research project that could be made widely accessible on the GSN websites. This would help them share their research with the general public. If you are interested in submitting a blog based on your project, please let us know at globalsouthnetwork@leicester.ac.uk