Dr. Pamhidzai H. Bamu a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Mercantile Law, Faculty of Law, Stellenbosch University, has been chosen to prepare a full paper for the Stanford Law School and Harvard Law School 2013 International Junior Faculty Forum.
Dr. Bamu’s paper is entitled ‘I cross the border for a living: An analysis of Zimbabwe’s informal international trade and its regulation’. The paper will consider the experiences and challenges faced by informal cross-border traders and informal cross-border couriers, whose activities have become more prevalent in the context of the Zimbabwe’s economic downturn. The paper will consider the informal rules that have been developed to regulate these activities. The role and impact of formal government policies and legislation in encouraging or hampering these informal activities will also be evaluated.
Stanford Law School and Harvard Law School in 2008 established an International Junior Faculty Forum. Its purpose is to stimulate the exchange of ideas and research, among younger scholars in the academy, from all parts of the world. It is open to junior faculty members who are non-US citizens and are based in academic institutions outside of the US. The Sixth International Junior Faculty Forum will be held in late September or early October 2013 at Harvard Law School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Junior faculty members undergo a two-stage selection process to participate in the Forum. The first involves the submission of a four-page abstract, outlining the objectives of the paper, the methodology to be adopted, key arguments made, and the paper’s potential contribution to scholarship. Applicants whose abstracts are chosen are then invited to submit a 15 000 word paper, and each paper is reviewed by two scholars. An international committee of legal scholars then makes the final selection of the papers to be presented at the actual Forum at Harvard Law School. In 2012, 50 applicants were invited to write full papers and of these, 10 were invited to present their papers at the Forum.