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Dr Grietje Baars

Reader in Law & Social Change

The City Law School Academic law programmes

Contact details

Address

Dr Grietje Baars G306 , Gloucester Building [G]
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

About

Overview

Grietje Baars works on the role of law in society, using queer and Marxist theory to understand (and ultimately subvert) the constitutive, ordering and ideological functions of law. Having worked on the political economy of international law, and law's gendering separately, in their latest project, Queering Corporate Power, they combine the two to discover how Queer theory (and practice) can help reverse the distributive effects of the corporate form, the 'motor of capitalism'. Their monograph (Law, Capitalism and the Corporation, Brill, 2019) describes the way international criminal law has been utilised to obscure the economic causes and effects of conflict, through (amongst others) an in-depth analysis of the Post-WWII Nuremberg Trials of the German Industrialists.

Grietje has also co-edited, with Andre Spicer, The Corporation, a Critical, Multidisciplinary Handbook, a volume which has come out of the ESRC funded Critical Corporation seminar series (CUP 2017). In addition to these major projects, Grietje has written on the emancipatory potential of human rights law and the interconnectedness of liberation struggles. Grietje has a background in English literature (Utrecht 1997), corporate-commercial legal practice in the City of London (2000-04) and human rights and international humanitarian law work in the Middle East (2006-09). They gained their PhD from UCL in 2012 and are currently a senior lecturer at the City Law School as well as a regular faculty member at the Harvard Institute for Global Law & Policy's global and regional workshops.

At the City Law School, Grietje is the Module Convenor for LLB1 Foundations of Criminal Law and Further Issues in Criminal Law, and co-convenor of the Law of the European Court of Human Rights. They also designed and taught the LLM courses International Human Rights in Law and Practice and International Law in the Global Political Economy as well as the LLB3 elective International Commercial and Investment Arbitration.

Grietje has supervised PhDs to successful completion in the area of corporate governance, and currently supervises PhD candidates working on law, race and literature and LGBT asylum practice.

Qualifications

  • PhD, University College London, United Kingdom
  • LLM, University College London, United Kingdom

Languages

Dutch; Flemish (can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review), French (can read, write, speak and understand spoken) and German (can read, write, speak and understand spoken).

Research

PhD supervision

Dr Baars welcomes approaches for supervision from prospective PhD students in the areas of international law including (critical, feminist, postcolonial, queer) theory of international law, international humanitarian law and international human rights law (including human rights practice and civil society), and any topics relating to the corporation, including corporate crime, corporate social responsibility, business and human rights, corporate colonialism and corporations and global governance, as well as gender and queer (legal) theory in domestic or comparative law perspectives.

Research students

1st supervisor

Simge Haznedaroglu

Thesis title: Analysis of the policy influences behind Turkey’s latest corporate governance reforms from a socio-legal perspective

Further information: Co-supervised by Prof. Anastasia Nesvetailova, SSAS

Simge Haznedaroglu

Aurelia Guo

Thesis title: Conceptual Poetry as Legal Philosophy in Tragodia by Vanessa Place

Alexander Powell

Banaz Taha

Role: 2nd Supervisor

Neshat Safari

Thesis title: A Comparative study of derivative suits in the United States and United Kingdom: two different approaches toward the role of derivative suits

Further information: Neshat Safari

Publications

Featured publications

  1. Baars, G. (2019). The Corporation, Law and Capitalism. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-29707-4.
  2. Baars, G. (2017). Capital, Corporate Citizenship and Legitimacy: The Ideological Force of ‘Corporate Crime’ in International Law. The Corporation (pp. 419–433). Cambridge University Press.
  3. Baars, G. and Spicer, A. (2017). Introduction: Why the Corporation? The Corporation (pp. 1–18). Cambridge University Press.
  4. (2016). The role of law in global value chains: a research manifesto. London Review of International Law, 4(1), pp. 57–79. doi:10.1093/lril/lrw003.

    [publisher’s website]

  5. Baars, G. (2016). “It’s not me, it’s the corporation”: the value of corporate accountability in the global political economy. London Review of International Law, 4(1), pp. 127–163. doi:10.1093/lril/lrw008.

    [publisher’s website]

Publications by category

Books (2)

  • Baars, G. (2019). The Corporation, Law and Capitalism A Radical Perspective on the Role of Law in the Global Political Economy. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-29707-4.
  • Baars, G. and Spicer, A. (Eds.), (2017). The Corporation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-07311-1.

Chapters (10)

  • Baars, G. (2019). Remaking ICL: Removing Businessmen and Inserting Legal Persons as Subjects. The Corporation, Law and Capitalism (pp. 239–308). BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-29707-4.
  • Baars, G. (2019). The Roots, Development, and Context of the Legal Concept of the Corporation: the Making of a Structure of Irresponsibility and a Tool of Imperialism. The Corporation, Law and Capitalism (pp. 31–132). BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-29707-4.
  • Baars, G. (2019). Introduction: ‘Das Kapital, das immer dahinter steckt’. The Corporation, Law and Capitalism (pp. 1–30). BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-29707-4.
  • Baars, G. (2019). Corporate Imperialism 3.0: from the Dutch East India Company to the American South Asia Company. The Corporation, Law and Capitalism (pp. 343–380). BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-29707-4.
  • Baars, G. (2019). Contemporary Schreibtischtäter: Drinking from the Poisoned Chalice? The Corporation, Law and Capitalism (pp. 309–342). BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-29707-4.
  • Baars, G. (2019). Capitalism’s Victors’ Justice? The Economics of World War Two, the Allies’ Trials of the German Industrialists and Their Treatment of the Japanese zaibatsu. The Corporation, Law and Capitalism (pp. 133–238). BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-29707-4.
  • Baars, G. (2015). From the Dutch East India Company to the Corporate Bill of Rights: corporations and international law. Research Handbook on Political Economy and Law Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78100-534-7.
  • Baars, G. (2014). The Making of an International Criminal Law. In Schwöbel, C. (Ed.), Critical Approaches to International Criminal Law (pp. 196–218). Oxford: Routledge.
  • Baars, G. (2013). Capitalism's victor's Justice? The hidden story of the prosecution of industrialists post-WWll. In Heller, K.J. and Simpson, G. (Eds.), Hidden histories of war crimes trials ISBN 978-0-19-967114-4.
  • In Schwöbel, C. (Ed.), Critical Approaches to International Criminal Law. In Routledge.

Conference papers and proceedings (8)

  • Baars, G. (2011). The Erez Terminal/The Beit Hanoun Crossing. The Phenomenology of Global Order: Inquiries into the Materiality of International Law 7 September, SOAS Centre for the Study of Colonialism, Empire and International Law, University of London.
  • Baars, G. (2011). Law: Congealed capitalism or a site for class struggle? Law's emancipatory potential examined. Der Kampf urns Recht 1-3 September, Zweiter Kongress der deutschsprachigen Rechtssoziologie­ Vereinigungen, University of Vienna.
  • Baars, G. (2010). Capitalism's victor's justice? The hidden story of the prosecution of industrialists post-WWII and subsequently. Untold Stories: Hidden histories of war crimes trials 14-16 October, University of Melbourne.
  • Baars, G. (2010). Business and human rights: marketized compliance or compliance with the market? International Law Association British Branch Annual Conference 15-16 April, Oxford Brookes University.
  • Baars, G. (2010). Rage against the business machine: civil society vs the individual corporate actor. Socializing economic relationships- new perspectives and methods for analysing transnational risk regulation 15-16 April, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University.
  • Baars, G. (2006). International Law and the Encoding of Empire's Privatisation. Critical Approaches to International Law Conference "The Force of International Law" 15-17 May, Birkbeck College, London.
  • Baars, G. (2006). The liability of corporations in International Criminal Law: Applying concepts of international law and corporate theory. International Law Association British Branch Annual Conference 3-4 March, UCL/SOAS, London.
  • Baars, G. (2005). The Enforcement of International Law on Corporations Operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories. The Question of Palestine in International Law 26-27 November, SOAS, London.

Journal articles (17)

Practitioners (3)

  • (2003). The topless temptation: Can editors resist destroying self-Regulation? Privacy and Data Protection
  • (2003). Grasping at nettles- an analysis of The Douglas v Hello! case. Privacy and Data Protection
  • (2003). Privacy 2002 - A Review Of UK Case Law. Privacy and Data Protection

Professional activities

Events/conferences (16)

  • Gender, Inc. Roskilde University, Denmark (2014).
    Description: Closing Plenary Comments
  • “Corporate Power in Global Society: Explication, Critique, Engagement, Resistance”. Harvard Institute of Global Law & Policy (2014).
    Description: June 2, 2014: “Corporate Power in Global Society: Explication, Critique, Engagement, Resistance” Convened by Grietje Baars (City Law School, City University London) Dennis Davis (High Court of Cape Town), Dan Danielsen (Northeastern University School of Law) and Andre Spicer (Cass Business School, City University London). Increasingly, concerns are expressed regarding “corporate power” – both in the general media and in scholarly writing. In this one-day interdisciplinary conference hosted by the IGLP Corporation in Global Society research group (in collaboration with The Critical Corporation Project, City University London) we interrogated this notion of “corporate power.” We accepted proposals from scholars working in law, political economy, economics, sociology, management, cultural studies, anthropology and other disciplines who sought a serious engagement with the questions posed. A selection of the papers presented will be published in a journal special issue.
  • New Directions in Global Thought, Institute for Global Law and Policy. Harvard University (2013).
    Description: "Capital, corporate personhood and legitimacy: The ideological force of 'corporate crime' in international law"
  • Law and Society Association Annual Meeting. Boston, MA (2013).
    Description: "Capital, corporate personhood and legitimacy: The ideological force of 'corporate crime' in international law"
  • Critical Approaches to International Criminal Law Conference Research Network. Liverpool (2012).
    Description: "Lawyers Congealing Capitalism: 'Accountability', 'Commodified Morality' and the Making of an International Criminal Law"
  • Weighs Like a Nightmare The HM 2012 Ninth Annual Conference. London, UK (2012).
    Description: "'International Human Rights Law' in the struggle of/for Gaza: A useful tool or a deceptive trap?"
  • Gardens of justice, Critical Legal Conference 2012. Stockholm (2012).
    Description: "The new anti-lawyers: On the emergence of new 'anarcho-communist' writing in international law"
  • Glasgow Conversations in International Law symposium. University of Glasgow Law School (2011).
    Description: Discussant on the theme: international economic law and its relationship with the law of international human rights. The main speakers included Andrew Lang (LSE), Chantal Thomas (Cornell University), and Emilios Christodoulidis (Glasgow). Paavo Kotiaho (University of Helsinki), Robert Knox (LSE), and Christian Tams (Glasgow) were the other discussants.
  • The Phenomenology of Global Order: Inquiries into the Materiality of International Law. place SOAS Centre for the Study of Colonialism, Empire and International Law, University of London (2011).
    Description: "The Erez Terminal/The Beit Hanoun Crossing"
  • Der Kampf urns Recht. Zweiter Kongress der deutschsprachigen Rechtssoziologie¬ Vereinigungen, University of Vienna (2011).
    Description: "Law: Congealed capitalism or a site for class struggle? Law's emancipatory potential examined"
  • Untold Stories: Hidden histories of war crimes trials. University of Melbourne (2010).
    Description: "Capitalism's victor's justice? The hidden story of the prosecution of industrialists post-WWII and subsequently"
  • International Law Association British Branch Annual Conference. Oxford Brookes University (2010).
    Description: "Business and human rights: marketized compliance or compliance with the market?"
  • Socializing economic relationships- new perspectives and methods for analysing transnational risk regulation. Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University (2010).
    Description: "Rage against the business machine: civil society vs the individual corporate actor"
  • Critical Approaches to International Law Conference "The Force of International Law". Birkbeck College, London (2006).
    Description: "International Law and the Encoding of Empire's Privatisation"
  • International Law Association British Branch Annual Conference. UCL/SOAS, London (2006).
    Description: "The liability of corporations in International Criminal Law: Applying concepts of international law and corporate theory"
  • The Question of Palestine in International Law. SOAS, London (2005).
    Description: "The Enforcement of International Law on Corporations Operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories"

Online articles (9)