Sustainable Development and Global Justice (SUSTJUSTICE)

There is an acknowledgement in law and development studies that institutions, including law, matter for development. There is ‘a massive surge in development assistance for institutional reform projects’. Lawyers, ‘who often conceive of themselves as institutional designers’, hence become important actors in development (Trebilcock and Mota Prado 2014: 27-31). However, lawyers have often been given a rather technical training, and are often not able to understand and oversee the broader implications of legal engineering for questions of sustainable development and global justice.

The ITP Sustainable Development and Global Justice (SUSTJUSTICE) aims to offer a comprehensive teaching programme based on the research lines of the University of Antwerp Law and Development Research Group (LDRG). It responds to the demonstrated interest and need of participants from the South in comprehensive and focused training on the role of law in pursuing sustainable development and global justice in a development context.

Subject-wise, the ITP is innovative in that it tackles the issues from a distinct legal perspective that focuses not only on existing law but also engages with the debates on how the law should be. Substantively, the programme links Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including environmental sustainability strongly with human rights law and highlights the specific challenges and opportunities for women within this context, based on a gender mainstreaming perspective.

Methodologically, SUSTJUSTICE is designed to bring together a very diverse student body (as attested by the SUSTLAW editions) in a highly interactive environment that aims to stimulate the participants’ own work and research. It offers strong input from voices from the South. The programme is designed to foster dialogue between experts and participants rather than only frontal teaching. SUSTJUSTICE invests in innovative and participatory teaching methods; the programme moves beyond conventional hierarchical teaching methods and adopts those based on interaction and collaboration. The teaching features a learner-centred “flipped classroom” approach. SUSTJUSTICE has a clear emphasis on collaborative team teaching. SUSTJUSTICE also pays strong attention to ‘managing for development results’ through skills training (writing policy briefs, negotiation, training both through written preparation and oral presentation) and hands-on training on human rights-based approaches.