Kevin Crow

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Area of Expertise:

Public and Private International Law; History and Theory of International Law; International Economic Law; Corporate Subjectivity to International Law; CSR; ESG; TWAIL; Business and Human Rights.

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Dr. Kevin Crow is Associate Professor I of International Law & Ethics at ASB and International Faculty Fellow at MIT. His research focuses on public-private constructions in international law, legal imaginaries of personhood, law’s role in determining economic and moral subjects historically and presently, and most recently, actualities that are presented as ‘natural’ in legal and economic theory. Prior to joining ASB, Kevin taught international economic law and human rights law at the University of Halle-Wittenberg Law School in Germany and practiced international criminal law with NGOs based in Cambodia and France.

Alongside his work with ASB, Kevin is an affiliated researcher with Columbia University’s Freedom of Expression Initiative and is active in legal consulting and international impact litigation. He holds a B.A. from the University of Washington (Political Science), a dual J.D. / LL.M. from the London School of Economics and the University of Southern California Law School (Law / Legal Theory), and a Ph.D. from the Universität Halle-Wittenberg Transnational Economic Law Center (International Law), all with honors.

Kevin is licensed to practice law in the State of California and can advise internationally on matters related to international law. His first book, International Corporate Personhood: Business and the Bodyless in International Law (Routledge 2021), sets out a theory of the corporation’s relationship to international law. His second book, Accession, Agreement and Acceptance in International Law: Adversarialism and Consent After Bandung is forthcoming from Routledge (2023).

Selected Journal Articles

What Does a Corporation Owe?: The Scope of Obligations in International Investment Counterclaims (with Lina Lorenzoni Escobar), 31 Minnesota Journal of International Law 1 (2022).
From Traction to Treaty Bound: Erga Omnes, Jus Cogens, and Corporate Subjectivity in International Investment Arbitration (with Lina Lorenzoni Escobar) 13 Journal of International Dispute Settlement 121 (2022).
International Corporate Constituency as a Human Problem, 12 Transnational Legal Theory 159 (2021).
International Law and Corporate Participation in Times of Armed Conflict: Financial Liability Through ISDS?, 37 Berkeley Journal of International Law 64 (2019).
The Opacity of Proportionality in International Courts: Could Categories Clarify?, 52 George Washington International Law Review 289 (2019).
International Corporate Obligations, Human Rights, and the Urbaser Standard: Breaking New Ground? (with Lina Lorenzoni Escobar), 36 Boston University International Law Journal 87 (2018).
The Concept of ‘Development’ in International Economic Law: Three Definitions and an Inquiry Into Origin, 14 Manchester Journal of International Economic Law 148 (2017).
The Merits or the Messenger?: Complementarity and the Referral Process in the ICC’s Application of Article 17 of the Rome Statute, 26 Journal of Transnational Law & Policy 53 (2017).
The Emerging Neoliberal Penality: Rethinking Foucauldian Punishment in a Profit-Driven Carceral System, 52 Criminal Law Bulletin 1 (2016).

Book

International Corporate Personhood: Business and the Bodyless in International Law (Routledge 2021).

Book Chapters

International Law as Evangelism, in Benjamin Porat & David Flatto (eds.), ‘Law as Religion, Religion as Law’ (Cambridge 2022).
Bandung’s Fate, in Ingo Venzke & Kevin Jon Heller (eds.), ‘Contingency and the Course of International Law’ (Oxford 2021).
Winds of Justice: Post-Colonial Opportunism and the Rise of the Khmer Rouge, in Morten Bergsmo, Wolfgang Kaleck & Kyaw Yin Hlaing (eds.), ‘Colonial Wrongs and Access to International Law’ (TOAEP 2020).
DSB Supervision of Implementation at the WTO (with Prof. Dr. Christian Tietje), ‘Max Planck EiPro Encyclopedia of International Law’ (Oxford 2020).
Corporate Persons and Crimes Against Humanity, ‘European Yearbook of International Law, Special Issue on International Investment Law and the Law of Armed Conflict’ (Springer 2019).
The Reform of Investment Protection Rules in CETA, TTIP, and Other Recent EU-FTAs: Convincing? (with Prof. Dr. Christian Tietje), in Stefan Griller, Walter Obwexer & Erich Vranes (eds.), ‘Mega-Regional Agreements: TTIP, CETA, TiSA: New Orientations for EU External Economic Relations’ (Oxford 2017).

Textbook Commentaries

On the Confirmation of Charges Against Charles Ble Goude (ICC), André Klip & Steven Freeland (eds.), Annotated Leading Cases of International Criminal Tribunals (“ALC”), Vol. LXIV (Intersentia 2021).
Commentary on Prosecutor v. Duch (ECCC), André Klip & Steven Freeland (eds.), ALC Vol. LX (Intersentia 2020).
The Scope of the ICC Registrar’s Powers Under Regulation 135, André Klip & Steven Freeland (eds.), ALC Vol. LVII (Intersentia 2019).
Commentary on Prosecutor v. Radovan Karadzic (ICTY), André Klip & Steven Freeland (eds.), ALC Vol. LIV (Intersentia 2017).
Recent ICC Applications of Article 17 of the Rome Statute, André Klip & Göran Sluiter (eds.), ALC Vol. LII (Intersentia 2016).

Works in Progress

‘The Natural’ in International Law
- A broad multiyear international collaboration exploring ‘states of nature’ and ‘forces of nature’ assumed in judicial reasoning, legal texts, and market justifications in international law.
Bowring’s Legacies
- An inquiry into the present implications of the 1855 Bowring Treaty between Great Britain and present-day Thailand, particularly its provisions on extraterritoriality and taxation.

Working Papers

A Taxonomy of Proportionality in International Courts, iCourts Working Paper Series No. 107 (November 2017).
The Urbaser Standard: Breaking New Ground? (with Lina Lorenzoni-Escobar), Beiträge Transnationalen Wirtschaftsrecht, Heft 144 (2017).
A Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, ASB Working Paper (February 2016).

Policy Papers

‘Trumpism’, the TPP, and the Politics of Uncertainty, Policy Papers on Transnational Economic Law No. 46, Transnational Economic Law Research Centre (TELC) (Feb. 2017).
The TPP and Malaysia: Local Impact and Implications Following the Conclusion of the Partnership Negotiations, Pol’y Papers on Transnat’l Econ. L. No. 44, TELC (Oct. 2015).
The TPA in 2015: A Quick Look at the Latest Incarnation of the U.S. President’s ‘Fast Track’ Trade Negotiation Authority, Pol’y Papers on Transnat’l Econ. L. No. 43, TELC (June 2015).

Opinion Pieces

A Pagan Christmas, Critical Legal Thinking (December 2021).
The Use of ‘Human Rights’ and ‘Development’ by Evangelical Organizations, OpenDemocracy (June 2018).
Trump’s Travel Ban v. Macron’s Police Power Reforms, Social Europe (June 2017).
Four Key Features of the Emerging ‘Trumpism’, Social Europe (April 2017).
Anne Saab, Narratives of Hunger in International Law: Feeding the World in Times of Climate Change, 23 Journal of International Economic Law 1049 (2020).
Anthea Roberts, Is International Law International?, 21 Journal of International Economic Law 739 (2018).
Diane Desierto, Public Policy in International Economic Law: The ICESCR in Trade, Finance, and Investment, 21 Journal of International Economic Law 1 (2018).
Iryna Marchuk, The Fundamental Concept of Crime in International Criminal Law, 15 Journal of International Criminal Justice 2 (2017).

Workshops and Conference Presentations

Co-Convenor, The Push and Pull of Fairness: Theoretical Approaches to Fairness in International Law, ESIL Annual Conference, Aix-en-Provence, 30 August-3 September 2023.
International Law and GVCs, Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, Annual Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20-22 July 2023.
Co-Convenor, Public and Private Commodity Production in International Law, Eafit University Law School, Phase I Conference, Eafit University, Medellín, Colombia, 17 July 2023.
Prominence and Dominance: Monetary Policy and International Economic Legal Theory, SIEL Biannual Conference, Bagotá, Colombia, 12-14 July 2023.
The ‘Christian Subject’: Secret Societies and the Opium Trade in Siam and the Straits Settlements, 3rd Asian Legal History Conference, CUHK, Hong Kong, China, 20-21 June 2023.
Prominence and Dominance: Monetary Policy and International Law, Money as a Democratic Medium, Harvard Law School, Boston, USA, 15-17 June 2023.
Participant, 4th UN South Asia Forum on Business and Human Rights, Kathmandu, Nepal, 20-22 March, 2023.
Co-Convener, ‘The Natural’ in International Law, Amsterdam Center for International Law, Asia School of Business, Graduate Institute Global Governance Centre, Amsterdam, 8-9 September 2022.
LSA Conference, ‘Rage, Reckoning, and Remedy’, ICSTE University Institute Lisbon, 14-16 July 2022.
ICONS Annual Conference, ‘Global Problems and Prospects in Public Law’, Wrocław, 4-6 July 2022.
Inequality, Silence, and ‘the Natural’ in International Law, ANU Law School’s 60^th Anniversary Conference: Public Law and Inequality, Canberra, February 2022.
Bowring’s Legacies, Asian Legal History Conference, CUHK – Hue University, Vietnam, July 2021.
Working Group on ‘The Natural’ in International Law, Organizer / Participant, ICONS Conference, ‘The Future of Public Law’, Mundo (online), July 2021.
Solidarity and ‘The Natural’ in International Law, 2020 ESIL Research Forum, ‘Solidarity: The Quest for Founding Utopias in International Law’, Catania, April 2021.
Constituency and the International Corporate Person, Transnational Law Institute, King’s College London, ‘Bringing the Human Problem Back: The Example of Corporate (Ir)responsibility’, October 2020.
From Traction to Treaty Bound: Erga Omnes, Multinationals, and the Arbitral Use of Judge-Made Law, presented with Lina Lorenzoni-Escobar at the ESIL/Católica Global Law School conference, ‘Socially Responsible Foreign Investment Under International Law,’ Lisbon, October 2019.
Institutional Moralization and International Corporate Persons, presented at the Taylor’s University Law School international conference, ‘The Future of Law & Legal Practice,’ Kuala Lumpur, October 2019.
The Individual Moralization of Corruption and the International Corporate Person, presented at the EUI Conference on ‘Corruption, Democracy and Human Rights,’ Florence, June 2019.
International Anti-Corruption Law and the International Corporate Person, Wharton/SciencesPo Conference on ‘The Transnationalization of Anti-Corruption Law’, Paris, December 2018.
International Corporate Personhood: Future Roads, UN 8^th Annual Forum on Business & Human Rights, United Nations Palais des Nations, Geneva, November 2018.
Bandung’s Missed Legacies: Alternative Normative Approaches to International Law?, ACIL Conference, ‘Contingency in International Law’, Amsterdam, June 2018.
Redesigning International Adjudication, Howard League, ‘Redesigning Justice’, Oxford, March 2018.
International Human Rights Law as a Tool of Repression: International Evangelical Organizations, Development Funding, and LGBT Rights, ARC Strategic Litigation Symposium, ‘The Use of Law by Social Movements & Civil Society’, Brussels, March 2018.
Human Rights and the Fluctuation of Executive Powers in the U.S.: From Nixon to Trump, ‘Populism, Nationalism, and Human Rights’ at Maastricht University, The Netherlands, January 2018.
Corporate Subjectivity and Crimes Against Humanity: Can Arbitrators Push the Boundaries of Investor-to-State Financial Liability?, Colloquium on ‘International Investment Law and the Law of Armed Conflict’, National University of Athens, Greece, October 2017.
Corporate Human Rights Obligations and International Investment Law: Urbaser’s Potential, ESIL IHRL Interest Group at the 13^th Annual ESIL Conference, Naples, September 2017.
Migrations of Power: International IP Law and the Implications of Eli Lilly, ICONS Conference, ‘Courts, Power, Public Law’, Copenhagen, July 2017.
International Law as Evangelism: American Christianity and the UN Development Project, Hebrew University, ‘Law as Religion, Religion as Law’, Jerusalem, June 2017.
The ‘Proportionality’ Delusion in International Law, LUISS Guido Carli University, ‘Constitutional Adjudication: Between Pluralism and Unity’, Rome, May 2017.

Invited Talks

Responsibility in Action, Leadership Energy Summit Asia (LESA), Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, 16-18 November 2020, ASB Iclif Executive Education Center.
Comment on the ECCC and Colonialism and Post-Colonialism, CILRAP Expert Meeting on Colonial Legacies and Access to International Law, Yangon, Myanmar, 16-17 November 2019.
The Evolving Status of Corporate Subjectivity to International Law: Developments in ISDS, presented to the IFF Research Seminar Series at the MIT Sloan School of Management, February 2018.
A Taxonomy of Proportionality in International Courts, presented to the iCourts Research Seminar at the University of Copenhagen Law School, 13 September 2017.
International Corporate Obligations, Human Rights, and the Urbaser Standard: Breaking New Ground?, with Lina Lorenzoni Escobar, presented at the Law After Lunch Seminar Series at the University of Halle-Wittenberg Law School, 27 April 2017.
Is There a Better Way to Approach ‘Judgment’ in International Law?: International IP Law and the Case of Eli Lilly, presented at the Asia School of Business, Research Seminar, 13 February 2017.
The Asymmetry of Investor-State Obligations Under International Investment Law, presented to the World Bank in Kuala Lumpur as part of the Half-Baked Seminar Series, 6 December 2016.
Food Security and the Human Right to Knowledge, presented to the Summer School on Food Security at the University of Halle-Wittenberg Law School, 15 September 2016.

Biography

Publications