In 2021 and 2022, two high-level academic reports concerning the way humanity should deal with the fate of biodiversity were published: 'The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review' and the IPBES 'Assessment on Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature'. The former conceptualises nature as an asset, while the latter acknowledges a wide diversity of ways of conceiving of and valuing nature. As an expression of such diversity, for an increasing number of people across the globe, ecosystems should hold legal personhood as a way of gaining protection.

Nigeria has for long been regarded as the poster child for the ‘curse’ of oil wealth. Yet, despite this, Nigeria achieved strong economic growth for over a decade in the 21st century, driven largely by policy reforms in non-oil sectors. In “Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy,” Zainab Usman argues that Nigeria’s major development challenge is not the ‘oil curse’, but rather one of achieving economic diversification beyond oil, subsistence agriculture, informal activities, and across its subnational entities.

Join us for a book launch and talk from former US Senator and current President of the American Constitution Society Russ Feingold (1975), and Peter Prindiville, a practising attorney, about their new book on amending the United States Constitution. The talk will be held on Tuesday 15th November at 5pm in the Magdalen College Auditorium: ‘The Constitution in Jeopardy: an Unprecedented Effort to Rewrite our Fundamental Law and What We can Do About It‘

South Asia’s transition from colonialism to independence in 1947 was undoubtedly one of the most momentous events of the twentieth century. Not surprisingly perhaps, its early postcolonial years have come to exercise a great pull for a range of scholars, who explore this key period, on the one hand, to ask questions about colonial-era legacies or continuities, and, on the other, to identify developments that help to explain what is happening there in the twenty-first century.