Leading lawyer and legal scholar Dr Olivia Lwabukuna joins the Institute of Commonwealth Studies as Senior Lecturer

Leading human rights lawyer and legal scholar Dr Olivia Lwabukuna has joined the Institute of Commonwealth Studies as a Senior Lecturer. 

Named by the Africa Report as one of ten African scholars to watch in 2025, Dr Lwabukuna has almost twenty years of experience in both practice and academia. She is the current Editor-in-Chief of the prestigious Journal of African Law, and is a fellow at the Center for Human Rights, University of Free State in South Africa. 

As a Tanzanian lawyer and Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania, Dr Lwabukuna has worked within professional, policy research and academic roles in South Africa, Tanzania, Swaziland, Kenya, Nigeria and the United Kingdom. Dr Lwabukuna has joined the School via SOAS, where she served as a lecturer and Deputy Director of Learning and Teaching in the School of Law.

Speaking of her ambitions for the role, Dr Lwabukuna said: 

"My ambitions and hopes are tailored to my role, the Institute’s vision and the experiences I bring with me. I would like to be able to link my policy research experiences to the international relations projects done within the Institute, but also to ensure that my human rights experiences around capacity building are also reflected in how our human rights projects and human rights academic programmes speak to each other. 

"I consider myself privileged to have had exposure to policy-related issues, academic issues and human rights work across several countries in a key regions of the Commonwealth. This will prove very useful for the Institute’s strategic vision. 

"Lastly, I would like to bring the Commonwealth, especially the younger Commonwealth in direct conversation with other Commonwealth stakeholders we engage with at the Institute. My experiences, having worked across various regions of the African continent and the United Kingdom, will prove valuable for this – including bringing new partnerships to the Institute and bringing the institute’s vision to Commonwealth Africa and its diaspora.  

Speaking of her own professional and academic areas of expertise, Dr Lwabukuna said: 

"My areas of legal/academic expertise fall broadly within International law and development, Human Rights and Development, Rule of Law and Development and Law and Development. 

"I specifically research, teach, publish and have been involved in capacity building, convening and policy work around Extractivism, Human Rights and Development – including resource governance, land, housing, displacement, women and developmentalism.

"My approach considers national, regional, transnational, and international law institutions and frameworks and their complex framing of, and contested relationship with inequality, inequity, plurality, fragility, sustainability and coloniality in Africa. I have convened conferences, workshops, chaired panels and presented my research in various forms over the last 18 years – influencing policy, creating impact and preparing the next generation of impact lawyers."

Speaking of a project of which she has been most proud, Dr Lwabukuna said:

"The most impactful and lasting engagement and project I have been involved in has been the convenorship of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Rule of Law Programme-funded workshops. Since 2017 the week-long workshops were implemented in Namibia, Malawi, and Tanzania and they covered aspects of the research I describe above and brought together in each session over 20 key policymakers, activists, academics, lawmakers and judges from various African regions.

"This project was and continues to be important because it was convened over several years, involving several partners from various African regions and covered a range of participants – being trans- generational and trans-sector. 

"It was people-centred and driven by voices from the regions and allowed a deeper insight into how initiatives to promote women’s rights intersect with and navigate national laws, cultural systems, political and economic dynamics as well as global governance.

"The project was also representative – as it best could, of regions and countries in East and Southern Africa. So it allowed us to at least widely understand the existing regional dynamics and build bridges and an informal network of practice."

Speaking of her experiences as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of African Law and the challenges and opportunities within this field, Dr Lwabukuna said:

"I can say that African law has evolved, and perhaps it was always never one thing. The only contemporary difference is that there is noticeability and to an extent, acknowledgment of the range of academics, researchers, and practitioners based in Africa that have  written on their own legal systems and legal developments. 

"This means African law has stopped reflecting one thing and now reflects a lot of contemporary intersections. Contemporary African law entails human rights law, environmental law, regional and domestic trade regimes, technology-related law, and so much more."

Finally, speaking of her appointment, Dr Lwabukuna said: 

"It is a pleasure to be working for the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, and the School. I am looking forward to building research partnerships with other institutes within the School, and the wider University of London as well as building equitable and impactful partnerships in all regions of the Commonwealth."