03.29.21 —   Professor Martha Davis, faculty director for Northeastern Law’s Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy and the NuLawLab, is a co-editor of the newly published Research Handbook on Human Rights and Poverty (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021). The book explores the nexus between human rights, poverty and inequality as a critical lens for understanding and addressing key challenges of the coming decades. It is an essential reference guide for those who teach in these areas and for scholars and students developing future research agendas of their own and will also serve as a much-needed resource for people working practically to address poverty in both the Global North and Global South.

“Bringing human rights tools and perspectives to bear on persistent poverty and inequality is more important than ever in this moment of political and social unrest,” said Professor Davis, whose previous books include Global Urban Justice: The Rise of Human Rights Cities; Human Rights Advocacy in the United StatesBringing Human Rights Home; and Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement.

Co-edited by Morten Kjaerum, adjunct professor at University of Aalborg, Denmark, and director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Lund, Sweden, and Amanda Lyons, lecturer in law and executive director of the Human Rights Center at University of Minnesota Law School, the Research Handbook starts from the premise that poverty is not solely an issue of minimum income and explores the profound ways that deprivation and distributive inequality of power and capability relate to economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights. Leading experts in the human rights field representing a range of disciplines outline a future research agenda to address poverty and inequality head on. Beginning with an interrogation of the definition of poverty, subsequent chapters analyze the dynamics of poverty and inequality in relation to matters such as race, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, geography and migration status. The rights to housing, land, health, work, education, protest and access to justice are also explored, with a recognition of the challenges posed by corruption, climate change and new technologies.

The Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) at Northeastern Law, the Human Rights Center at University of Minnesota School of Law and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Lund, Sweden, will co-host two webinars on the book on April 14 and May 18, 2021.

About Northeastern University School of Law

The nation’s leader in experiential legal education since 1968, Northeastern University School of Law offers the longest-running, most extensive experience-based legal education program in the country and is a national leader in legal education reform. Founded with cooperative legal education as the cornerstone of its program, Northeastern guarantees its students unparalleled practical legal work experiences. All students participate in full-time legal placements, and can choose from the more than 1,500 employers worldwide participating in the school’s signature Cooperative Legal Education Program. The future of legal education since 1968, Northeastern University School of Law blends theory and practice, providing students with a unique set of skills and experience to successfully practice law.

For more information, contact d.feldman@northeastern.edu.