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> Natural Resources research group

Lorenzo Cotula

Principal researcher (law and sustainable development), Natural Resources; team leader, legal tools

Lorenzo Cotula leads research, policy engagement and field-level projects on the legal arenas where natural resource governance meets the global economy – cutting across land and natural resource law and governance; international investment law; human rights law, business & human rights, and responsible investment; political economy of natural resources and foreign investment; and legal empowerment, citizen agency and public accountability.
Full biography

Lorenzo is also a visiting professor at the School of Law, University of Strathclyde.

Expertise

Land and natural resource governance; economic law, particularly international investment law; human rights; responsible investment, particularly in agriculture and the extractive industries; law and political economy in natural resource investments; legal and socio-legal research methods; legal empowerment approaches; citizen participation in law reform. Extensive country experience in Africa and Asia.

Before IIED

Research consultant to the Legal Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO); collaboration with two Italian NGOs.

Education
Postgraduate certificate in Sustainable Business, University of Cambridge; PhD in Law, University of Edinburgh; MSc in Development Studies (Distinction), London School of Economics; Degree in Law (cum laude), University "La Sapienza" of Rome.

Current work

Lead on Legal Tools for Citizen Empowerment, a collaborative initiative to strengthen rights in policy arenas associated with natural resource investments – from local land governance to international investment treaties.

Lorenzo Cotula's picture
Telephone: 
+44 (0) 131 300 0161
Email: 
lorenzo.cotula@iied.org
Twitter: @LCotula
Languages: English, Italian and French

Lorenzo Cotula's projects

Farmers tend crops in a field

Legal and social accountability tools in agricultural investments in West Africa

Project, Oct 2014
Flags outside the Palais des Nations, Geneva

Rethinking investment treaties and dispute settlement in the light of sustainable development

Project, Oct 2014

Land and water rights in the Sahel

Project, Sep 2008
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Latest publications

Raising the cost of climate action? Investor-state dispute settlement and compensation for stranded fossil fuel assets

(Dis)integration in Global Resource Governance: Extractivism, Human Rights, and Investment Treaties

Investment Contracts and International Law: Charting a Research Agenda

“Inclusive business” in agriculture: Evidence from the evolution of agricultural value chains

The future of land: commercial pressures and the case for systemic law reform to secure rural land rights

“Inclusive business” in agriculture: Evidence from the evolution of agricultural value chains

View more publications by this author

 

Lorenzo Cotula's blog posts

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, headquarters building in Vienna (Photo: Michela Mazzoli, Creative Commons via Flickr)

Investor-state arbitration: an opportunity for real reform?

Blog, Dec 2018
Large-scale international investments in Cameroon have highlighted the importance of protecting the land rights of rural people (Photo: World Agroforestry Centre, Creative Commons via Flickr)

Legal activism key to securing land rights in new investment phase

Blog, Mar 2018
The logo for the Sustainable Development Goals (Image: the United Nations)

Public-private partnerships and aid's 'private turn': addressing the investment law dimensions

Blog, Jan 2018
A community in Cameroon, where Centre pour l'Environnement et le Developpement has been supporting junior lawyers in rural communities (Photo: Lorenzo Cotula/IIED)

Legal empowerment: what we do, what we've learned

Blog, Nov 2017
A farm in Uganda. There has recently been much debate about responsible investment in the agricultural sector (Photo: US Aid, Creative Common, via Flickr)

Responsible investment provisions in international investment treaties: where next?

Blog, Oct 2017
Clearing forest for a palm oil plantation in Borneo (Photo: Rainforest Action Network, Creative Commons via Flickr)

Commodity cycles, economic treaties and pressures on land rights

Blog, May 2016
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