Schulich School of Law

Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Assistant Professor, Viscount Bennett Professor of Law

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Schulich School of Law

Email: Olabisi.Akinkugbe@dal.ca
Phone: 902-494-4298
Mailing Address: 
Room 422, Weldon Law Building
6061 University Avenue
PO Box 15000
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2
 
Research Topics:
  • International Economic Law
  • International Investment Law
  • International Law & Development
  • International Human Rights Law
  • Business Law and Transnational Law
  • Law & Policy of Public-Private Partnerships

Education

  • LLB Hons. (Lagos, Nigeria)
  • Licentiate Degree, Law (Abuja, Nigeria)
  • LLM (Toronto)
  • PhD (Ottawa)

Bar admission

  • Nigeria, 2004

Bio

Olabisi D. Akinkugbe is an Assistant Professor and the Viscount Bennett Professor of Law at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. He obtained a Ph.D. in law from the University of Ottawa, an LL.M. from the University of Toronto, and an LL.B. from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. Before joining the Schulich School of Law, Professor Akinkugbe was an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. In Spring Term of 2021, he was an Adjunct Visiting Assistant Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University where he taught a seminar on Law & Development.

Professor Akinkugbe is a founding editor of Afronomicslaw.org blog which focuses on all aspects of international economic law as they relate to Africa and the Global South, and the African Journal of International Economic Law. He sits on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of International Economic Law, Ocean Yearbook, Nigerian Yearbook of International Law, International Law Association, Canada, and the Executive Council of the Society of International Economic Law. Professor Akinkugbe is a Member of the Marine and Environmental Law Institute at the Schulich School of Law and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa.

Research

Professor Akinkugbe's research interests cut across international economic law, international human rights law, international investment law, law and development, international courts, and business law as they relate to Africa. He explores these issues from the national, regional, and international contexts. He uses interdisciplinary materials from political science, sociology, international development studies, economics and history to explore issues of economic development and international economic law.

Areas of Supervision

  • International Economic Law 
  • Regional Economic Integration in Africa
  • International Courts in Africa
  • International Law and Development
  • International Investment Law
  • International Human Rights Law

Teaching

Grants

  • 2020-2022: Dalhousie Belong Research Award,  Illicit Financial Flows, Africa, and Sustainable Development
  • 2016–2019: SSHRC Insight Development Grant, Regional and National Courts and Africa’s Economic Integration: A Study of the East African Community (with Richard Frimpong Oppong)
  • 2015: Nicole Senécal Graduate Scholarship in International Law
  • 2013–2015: University of Ottawa Excellence Award
  • 2011–2015: University of Ottawa Admission Scholarship
  • 2007–2008: Innovation Law Scholarship, Centre for Innovation Law and Policy, University of Toronto

Selected awards & honours

  • 2015–2016: Nominee, University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law Teaching Excellence Award

Selected publications

Journal Articles (Peer-Reviewed)

  • Reflections on the Value of Socio-Legal Approaches to International Economic Law in Africa, (2021) Chicago Journal of International Law, Volume 22.1, 24-36
  • Africanization and the Reform of International Investment Law, Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law,  53 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 7 (2021)
  • International Decision Commentary: Houngue Éric Noudehouenou v. Republic of Benin, (2021) The American Journal of International Law, Volume 115, Issue 2, pp. 281-287. 
  • Dispute Settlement under the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: A Preliminary Assessment, (2020) African Journal of International and Comparative Law 28, pp. 138-158. (Special Issue: The Judicial Power of Africa’s Supranational Courts)
  • Introduction to the Inaugural Issue of the African Journal of International Economic Law, (2020) Vol 1 African Journal of International Economic Law Inaugural Issue, pp.VI-X. (With James Thuo Gathii) 
  • Theorizing Developmental Regionalism in Narratives of African Regional Trade Agreement, (2020) Vol 1 African Journal of International Economic Law Inaugural Issue, pp. 297-320. 
  • Africa’s Participation in International Economic Law in the 21st Century: An Introduction, (2020) Manchester Journal of International Economic Law, Volume 17, Issue 1: 1-10 (with Ohio Omiunu, Amaka Vanni, Regis Y. Simo and Luwam Dirar)
  • Reverse Contributors? African State Parties, ICSID, and the Development of International Investment Law, (Invited contribution, Special Issue on “Africa and the ICSID System), ICSID Review, Vol. 34, No. 2 (2019), pp. 434–454
  • “To Recognize or Not” Good Faith under Nigerian Law of Contract”, (2019) Vol. 1, Issue 1, Journal of Commonwealth Law, pp. 1-22 
  • “Informal Networks of Corruption: Assessing the Challenges for Public Sector Whistleblowing in Nigeria” (2018) Jindal Global Law Review, pp. 1-18 (Special Issue on “New Governance Strategies for Preventing Corruption: Law, Theory and Practice”)  

Book Chapters

  • The Politics of Regulating and Disciplining Judges in Nigeria, in Richard Devlin and Sheila Wildeman, Disciplining Judges, (Edward Elgar, 2021) pp. 254-277. 
  • Towards an Analyses of the Mega-Politics Jurisprudence of the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, in James Thuo Gathii (eds.) The Performance of Africa’s International Courts: Using International Litigation for Political, Legal, and Social Change, pp. 149-177 (2020, Oxford University Press)
  • 2018 Developments in Home State Foreign Direct Investment Policies, in Lisa Sachs, Lise Johnson & Jesse Coleman, Yearbook of International Investment Law and Policy, pp. 41-49 (Oxford University Press, 2019) (with Sara Seck, and Adebayo Majekolagbe) 
  • 2017 Developments in Home and Host State Policy Responses to Foreign Direct Investment, in Lisa Sachs, Lise Johnson & Jesse Coleman, Yearbook of International Investment Law and Policy, pp. 49-64, (Oxford University Press, 2019) (Sara Seck)
  • The African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights Decision in the Ogiek Case: An Appraisal, in Amissi M. Manirabona & Yenny Vega Cardenas (Eds.) Extractive Industries and Human Rights in an Era of Global Justice: New Ways of Resolving and Preventing Conflicts, pp. 163-200, (LexisNexis, 2019) (with Adebayo Majekolagbe)

Service & activity

  • Board Member, Journal of International Economic Law, 2020 – 
  • Director, International Law Association, Canada, 2020 –
  • Executive Council Member, Society of International Economic Law, 2020 –
  • Co-Editor-in-Chief, The African Journal of International Economic Law, 2020 -
  • Editorial Board, The Caribbean Law Review
  • Editor, The Nigerian Yearbook of International Law, 2018 - 
  • President, African International Economic Law Network, 2018-2020
  • Member, Canadian Law and Society Association
  • Member, American Society of International Law
  • Member, Human Rights Research and Education Centre, Ottawa.