Md Sekander Zulker Nayeen

Overview

Zulker Nayeen's research focuses on how the competition between investor’s right to profit generation and host country’s expectation to uphold their sustainable development policies can be systematically resolved in investor-state arbitration. His research is funded by the City Law School Doctoral Scholarship.

He is being supervised by Professor Dr David Collins, and Dr Taskin Iqbal.

Zulker Nayeen is a British Chevening Scholar, and an Additional District and Sessions Judge to the Bangladesh Judiciary, a senior position in the hierarchy of Bangladesh Judicial Service. He is also a co-founder of SDG Lab (www.sdg-lab.org), a Dhaka based organisation which works for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Qualifications

1. LLM in Civil Litigation and Dispute Resolution with Distinction, City, University of London, United Kingdom, Sep 2015 – Oct 2016
2. LLM (First Class), University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh, Feb 2005 – Jul 2006
3. LLB (Hons), University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh, Jan 2001 – Feb 2005

Postgraduate training

1. 6th Orientation Courese for Newly Promoted Additional District & Sessions Judges held through Online/Distance Learning process, Judicial Administration Training Institute, Bangladesh, Sep 2020
2. 133rd Refresher Course for Joint District & Sessions Judges/ Equivalent Officers, Judicial Administration Training Institute, Bangladesh, Feb 2017
3. Basic IT Training (MS Office- 2010 and Windows- 7), Justice Sector Facility Project and UNDP, Bangladesh, Aug 2014
4. 94th Survey and Settlement Training Course, Ministry of Land, Bangladesh, Dec 2012 – Feb 2013
5. 60th Bangladesh Civil Service Officers’ Military Orientation Course, Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh, Sep – Oct 2012
6. 110th Basic Training Course on Judicial Administration for Senior Assistant Judges, Senior Judicial Magistrates and Equivalent Officers along with Training on Computer literacy, Judicial Administration Training Institute, Bangladesh, Jan 2012
7. 80th Basic Training Course on Judicial Administration for newly appointed Assistant Judges and Judicial Magistrates along with Training on Computer literacy, Judicial Administration Training Institute, Bangladesh, Jul 2008
8. Bar Vocational Course, Bangladesh Bar Council, Bangladesh, Nov – Dec 2006

Employment

1. Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA), City, University of London, May 2021 – present
2. Visiting Lecturer, University of Hertfordshire, May 2021 – present
3. Adjunct Faculty, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, Feb 2020 – Feb 2021
4. Adjunct Faculty, University of Asia Pacific, Apr 2010 – present
5. Adjunct Faculty, Northern University Bangladesh, Apr 2009 – Oct 2012
6. Judge, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, May 2008 – present
7. Advocate, Dhaka Bar Association, Bangladesh, Jun 2007 – May 2008

Awards

1. City, University of London (2020) City Law School PhD Scholarship
2. The City Law School, City, University of London (2016) The City Law School Prize on Civil Dispute Resolution Options
   I was awarded this Prize for securing the highest Distinction level mark in the concerned course.
3. Foreign & Commonwealth Office, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (2015) Chevening Scholarship

Languages

Arabic (can read) and Bengali (can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review).

Positing host countries’ sustainable development policies in investor-state arbitration

Upholding host countries’ sustainable development policies have now become a contentious issue in investor-state arbitration. Host states allege that arbitrators in applying and interpreting investment laws are not paying due consideration to states’ sustainable development policies. In contrast, investors believe, as the states voluntarily accept immense liabilities and few rights for promotion of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), investment law would naturally be imbalanced to them and arbitrators should only follow that law. They do not possess enough authority to consider issues of sustainable development (non-investment law). Nevertheless, some tribunals have seen to demonstrate a readiness to grant host policy space to regulate investors’ activities to establish a balance which attracted some criticisms. In such backdrop, this research endeavours to find out the way of establishing a systematic balance between the aforesaid competing positions of investors and states. Qualitative and interdisciplinary research will be carried out to substantiate the research.

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