Jade Kosché

Jade Kosché is a DPhil candidate at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, supervised by Professor Fernanda Pirie. She is an Economic and Social Research Council researcher and a Graduate Research Resident at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. Her doctoral research examines the societal effects of a private anti-gender-based violence (GBV) program implemented in Lesotho’s garment factories. This innovative program, one of a few of its kind, leverages the purchasing power of multinational brands through contractual mechanisms in an effort to reduce GBV—a pervasive issue within the global garment sector. Jade spent over 14 months in Lesotho conducting legal ethnographic research on Basotho garment factory workers' lives. Jade’s research explores the impacts of private governance on workers’ social and economic rights in low- and middle-income countries. Her work is funded by UK Research and Innovation.

Jade has extensive experience in legal scholarship, research assistance, and legal practice. She served as Senior Editor of "Theoretical Inquiries in Law", one of the world’s most-cited journals in legal theory and jurisprudence. She has been a research fellow with the European Research Council-funded TraffLab Project, led by Professor Hila Shamir, where she focused on the intersections of labor rights and human trafficking. Additionally, Jade contributed as an assistant editor for the forthcoming Cambridge University Press publication, "Modern Slavery and the Governance of Global Value Chains". She has served as Executive Editor of Trinity Law Review, as well as conducted comparative law research on sex- and race-based segregation in Israel and the US under the supervision of Dean Yofi Tirosh. Jade has also worked on-the-ground in Cambodia, authoring a training manual on combatting human trafficking that is used by NGOs globally to guide project planning and staff training.

Originally from California, Jade holds an AA, summa cum laude, from Los Angeles Valley College and a JD, magna cum laude, from Trinity Law School. She earned her LLM, summa cum laude, in International Business Law at Tel Aviv University under a Fulbright Fellowship. Her LLM thesis in international private law was completed in 2022 at the Zvi Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies.

Before transitioning to academia, she practiced labor and employment law in her hometown of Los Angeles. She enjoys volunteering as a mentor for Basotho youth from underprivileged backgrounds through the American Corner in Maseru, Lesotho.