Decolonising Labour and Law in Mandate Palestine: New Currents in TWAIL

In this event, Professor Mai Taha (London School of Economics) will discuss her paper “From Cairo to Jerusalem: Law, Labour, Time and Catastrophe.” Professor Taha is an assistant professor in sociology and human rights at LSE. Her work revolves around international law and empire, human rights, labour movements, class and gender relations, care work and social reproduction. She studies the law through the lens of social movements and is influenced by critical methodology including postcolonial theory, third world approaches to international law (TWAIL), critical legal studies (CLS), critical race theory (CRT), law and Marxism, and Marxist feminism. Her article explores the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe in Arabic) in Palestine and the history of female labour during the interwar period in Palestine through the lens of law and legality. Professor Taha will initiate the discussion with a brief synopsis of her paper. She will also reflect on how her work fits into the contemporary current of TWAIL scholarship which seeks to develop alternative epistemological approaches to the law to subvert its colonial core. This will be followed by an open question and answer session and discussion.We invite our attendees to read Professor Taha’s paper before joining us on the day for a productive and engaging conversation. We will circulate a copy of the reading once you register, closer to the date of the event. 

Format: Teams

Link to join: https://teams.microsoft.com/_#/pre-join-calling/19:meeting_MjdiNDA0YmYtMGEzYi00MDI3LThiZDctMDY3MmRiMGE0ZjBm@thread.v2

Registration Link: https://forms.gle/h5gpYEzb62UFM6bH6 

Reading: Taha, M. (2019) ‘From Cairo to Jerusalem: Law, Labour, Time and Catastrophe’. Law and Critique, Issue No. 9.