Balakrishnan Rajagopal
Associate Professor of Law and Development
Interim Head, IDG; Director, MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice
Room 9-432
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139
URL: http://web.mit.edu/phrj
Email: braj@mit.edu
Tel: (617) 258-7721
Current Research
His current research is in five areas: a) development-induced displacement including through large projects; b) human rights and globalization, especially relating to corporate social responsibility; c) economic, social and cultural rights particularly relating to environment, land and housing, in comparative public and private law; 4) social movements and multi-level governance including new ways of organizing political power and authority; and 5) the relationship between critical social and legal theory and progressive practice in planning and economic development. In the past, he assisted the World Commission on Dams to develop a legal and policy framework on the human rights implications of large dams and has consulted with UNDP on the articulation of a human rights approach to development planning and policy. He has lectured on economic and social rights at the Institute for International Judges and on housing rights in Porto Alegre, Brazil. His research is focused primarily on South and Southeast Asia and also on the legal systems of Brazil and South Africa. He is currently working on his next book, which is a comparative study of the judicialization/legalization of socio-economic rights in Brazil, India and South Africa. He is also directing a major research project on manual scavenging and sustainable sanitation in India.
Selected Publications
International Law From Below: Development, Social Movements and Third World Resistance (Cambridge University Press, 2003) (translated into Spanish by the Latin American Institute for Alternative Legal Services (ILSA), Colombia, 2005, South Asia edition, 2005, by Foundation Press).
International Law and the Third World: Reshaping Justice, (Co-editor, Routledge, 2008).
"The International Human Rights Movement Today", Maryland Journal of International Law, (forthcoming 2009)
"The Rule of Law in Post-Conflict Rebuilding: A Critical Examination", 49(4) William and Mary Law Review 1345 (2008)
"Lipstick on a Caterpillar? Assessing the New UN Human Rights Council", 13 Buffalo Human Rights Law Review 7 (2007) (shorter version published as Who failed Whom? Assessing the UNs Human Rights efforts, MIT Audit of Conventional Wisdom Series, Center for International Studies, October 2007)
"Pro-Human Rights but Anti-poor? A Critical Evaluation of the Indian Supreme Court from a Social Movement Perspective", Human Rights Review, vol.8(3) (2007), pp.157-186
"Counter-hegemonic International Law: Rethinking Human Rights and Development as a Third World Strategy", Third World Quarterly, Vol.27, No.5, pp.767-783 (2006) reprinted in Fifty Years of Asian African Legal Consultative Organization: Commemorative Essays (Edited by Ambassador Dr. Wafik Kamil, Published by the Asian African Legal Consultative Organization, 2007).
"The Role of Law in Counter-hegemonic Globalization and Global Legal Pluralism: Lessons from the Narmada Valley struggle in India", Vol. 18, No. 3, 1 Leiden Journal of International law (2005).
"International law and Social Movements: Challenges of Theorizing Resistance", 41 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 397 (2003) reprinted as International Law and Third World Resistance: A Theoretical Inquiry in The Third World and International Order: Law, Politics and Globalization (A.Anghie et al eds., Martinus Nijhoff, 2003) and reproduced in Michael McCann, Law and Social Movements (International Library of Essays in Law and Society, Ashgate, 2006); Laura Dickinson, Empirical Approaches to Human Rights (Ashgate, 2007).
He has also published in the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, El Universal, the Hindu, the World Paper, Yaleglobalonline, and the Phnom Penh Post and has been featured on BBC, CNN, NPR, WGBH-Boston, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, several wire services and other media outlets on human rights and international legal issues. He also blogs on current issues of human rights and international law at Huffington Post.
Recent Classes
11.164 Human Rights in Theory and Practice Fall 09
11.166 Law, Social Movements, and Public Policy: Comparative and International Experience Fall
11.490 Law and Development Spring 10
11.493 Legal Aspects of Property and Land Use Fall
11.494 Law and Politics of Local Governance Spring
11.496 Law, Social Movements, and Public Policy: Comparative and International Experience Spring
11.497 Human Rights in Theory and Practice Fall 09
11.701 Introduction to International Development Fall 09
11.945 (S08) Global Actors and Institutions in Development Spring 08
Recent Awards
He has received a Soros Justice Fellowship, a Senior Fellowship, a Samuel Morse Lane Fellowship, a Reginald Lewis Fellowship (all three at Harvard Law School), two HASS MIT Research Awards and a Ford International Career Development Professorship. He has also been a Fellow at The Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC.
Additional Information
He received his B.L. (equivalent of J.D.) from University of Madras (India), an LLM (Masters in Law) from the American University in DC and an interdisciplinary SJD (Doctor of Juridical Science) from Harvard Law School. He formerly served with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia between 1992-97 and received a Royal Award from the King of Cambodia in recognition. He has consulted with the UNDP, the World Commission on Dams and civil society organizations. His research experience and interests are primarily in South and Southeast Asia.
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