Dr Harrison Mbori, Postdoctoral Researcher, has been awarded the SIEL-Hart Prize 2024 for his outstanding doctoral thesis “Resolving Economic Disputes in Africa: Assessing the Role of International Courts and Arbitral Bodies“, defended at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
The Prize Committee stated that Mbori’s work offers a creative and multidisciplinary examination of the procedures employed to settle international economic disputes in Africa. African international courts and arbitration procedures are frequently portrayed as inferior to or derivative of their counterparts in the Global North, but Mbori questions these prevalent stereotypes. At the core of his argument is a critical examination of the socio-legal actors influencing African dispute resolution—such as states, transnational corporations (TNCs), African law scholars, international organisations, and up-and-coming arbitration experts. According to Mbori, these players work together to produce a dynamic and complex ecology that is difficult to assess from a Eurocentric or doctrinaire standpoint.
The SIEL–Hart Prize is awarded to an outstanding unpublished manuscript by an early career scholar in the field of International Economic Law and is sponsored by Hart Publishing and the Society of International Economic Law.
Congratulations to Harrison on this well-deserved recognition!
About Dr Harrison Mbori
Harrison´s academic background, experience, and research interests traverse many areas of international law, public law, and private law. Most of his research and intellectual practice focuses on Africa thematically, theoretically, and comparatively. In international law, his mainstay area in recent years has been international economic law generally. He researches specific areas of international trade law, investment law, development law, constitutional and administrative law, and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).
Between 2021 and 2023, Harrison was a doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of International Procedural Law. He also worked previously as a lecturer in Kenya. He holds an SJD (PhD equivalent) from Loyola University Chicago School of Law; a Master’s (LLM) degree in international law and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) from Loyola University Chicago School of Law; a Master’s (LLM) degree in international economic law and policy from the Academy of International Economic Law and Policy (AIELPO), Greece; and a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) from the University of Nairobi (Kenya).