Olufunmilayo Arewa
Temple University

Olufunmilayo Arewa

Olufunmilayo is the Shusterman Professor of Business and Transactional Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law. She received an M.A. and Ph.D. (Anthropology) from the University of California, Berkeley, an A.M. (Applied Economics) from the University of Michigan, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an A.B. from Harvard College. Her major areas of scholarly research include technology, music, entrepreneurship, business, copyright, film, and Africana studies. She has taught a number of courses including Business Associations, Corporate Finance, Accounting, Private Equity, Mergers & Acquisitions, Investment Management Regulation, Intellectual Property, African Legal Systems, and a Startup and Small Business Clinic.

Emeka Duruigbo
Texas Southern University

Emeka Duruigbo

Emeka is a professor of law at Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas, U.S.A. where he teaches courses in Oil and Gas Law, Business Organizations, and International Law. He is also an adjunct professor of law at the University of Ibadan, Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law (CPEEL). Prior to joining the legal academy, he was a senior legal counsel at Natural Heritage Institute, a resource development associate at LawFinance Group, Inc. and a Research Fellow at the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, Center for Environmental Science and Policy, at Stanford University. Globally, he serves on the advisory board of the Institute for Energy Law and on the Educational Advisory Board of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN). Professor Duruigbo received his LL.B from the Faculty of Law, University of Benin where he was the Best Overall Graduating Student. After graduating from the Nigerian Law School and briefly practicing corporate and commercial law, he proceeded to earn Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Law and held academic fellowships at the University of Alberta, Golden Gate University and Stanford University. He is licensed to practice law in Nigeria and California and is a member of the American Bar Association.

James T. Gathii
Loyola University Chicago

James T. Gathii

James is a professor of law and the Wing-Tat Lee Chair in International Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law since July 2012. He is a graduate of the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and Harvard Law School. He sits on the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law, the Journal of African Law and the Journal of International Trade Law and Policy, among others. He is also a founding editor of Afronomicslaw the blog on International Economic Law Issues as they relate to Africa. His research and teaching interests are in Public International Law, International Trade Law, Third World Approaches to International Law, (TWAIL), Comparative Constitutionalism and Human Rights as well as Business and Commercial Law. James is an Independent Expert of the Working Group on Extractive Industries, Environment, and Human Rights Violations in Africa formed by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. He is also an expert member of the Working Group on Agricultural Land Investment Contracts of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDRIOT). He has sat as an arbitrator in international commercial arbitrations hosted by the Permanent Court of Arbitration. He is an elected member of the International Academy of International Law. He has consulted for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, (OHCHR), and the Economic Commission for Africa, (ECA), among others. James is widely published in the areas of Public International Law, International Trade Law, International Human Rights and speaks extensively on these topics both in the United States and abroad.

 

Anthony Idigbe
Punuka Attorneys & Solicitors

Anthony Idigbe

Anthony is the Senior Partner at Punuka Attorneys & Solicitors, a fully integrated and multi-dimensional business law practice with offices across Nigeria. He was elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (equivalent of Queen’s Counsel) in 2000 and was admitted to practice law in Ontario, Canada in 2016. He is a renowned legal adviser in diverse areas of commercial law including the capital markets, telecommunications, as well as insolvency and restructuring law. He has served on various arbitration panels and is presently a member of the ICC Arbitral Panel. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, UK, Insolvency International (INSOL), the International Bar Association (IBA), the Institute of Directors, and the International Insolvency Institute. He is a past President of the Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN) and was the Founder and first Chairman, Capital Markets Solicitors Association (CMSA), where he now functions as Trustee.

Chidi Oguamanam
University of Ottawa

Chidi Oguamanam

Chidi is a full professor in the Faculty of Law (Common Law Section), University of Ottawa, where he is affiliated with the Centre for Law, Technology and Society; the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability; and the Centre for Health Law Policy and Ethics. He holds numerous research fellowships and affiliations with leading organizations, including the Centre for International Governance Innovation, the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law at McGill University, and the IP Law Unit at the University of Cape Town. Following professional legal practice in corporate and intellectual property in Nigeria, Chidi obtained his LL.M. and Ph.D. in law from the University of British Columbia. He is called to the Bar in Nigeria and Canada and is a member of Nigerian Bar Association and Nova Scotia’s Barristers’ Society. He leads and is affiliated with many research consortia, including ABS Canada (abs- canada.org) and the Open African Innovation Research network (openair.africa). He is an author of several books that reflect a wide range of interdisciplinary research. Chidi is a public intellectual committed to justice and fairness in global knowledge governance paradigms, with emphasis on intellectual property’s interface with Indigenous knowledge systems. In 2016, he was named to the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars. His recent publications include Genetic Resources, Justice and Reconciliation: Canada and Global Access and Benefit Sharing (Cambridge, 2018) and a biography of the Chief Judge of the Lagos State, Opeyemi Oke, titled A Benchmark on the Bench (Esquire, 2019).

Obiora Okafor
York University

Obiora Okafor

Obiora is the York Research Chair in International and Transnational Legal Studies (Senior Tier) and a tenured Full Professor of Law at the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, Toronto, Canada. He is the UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity and a former Chairperson of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee. The General Editor of the international journal, the Transnational Human Rights Review, and editorial board member of a number of other academic journals around the world, he has held the Gani Fawehinmi Distinguished Chair in Human Rights Law at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and served as a Visiting Professor at a number of universities and institutes around the world. He was conferred the Award of Academic Excellence of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers in 2010 and the Gold Medal for Exceptional Research and Major Contributions to Jurisprudence of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in 2013.

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