Terra Lawson-Remer is currently Assistant Professor of International Affairs at the New School Graduate Program in International Affairs, in New York City. She works on globalization and the political economy of economic development, including natural resource governance, international trade and human rights law, property rights, climate change, extractive industries, transnational corporations, conflict, economic and social rights, and the relationship between formal law and informal social norms.

Terra has conducted field research in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the South Pacific, and previously worked as a dissertation research fellow at the UN World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER); a Legal Fellow in the Business & Human Rights Program at Amnesty International USA; for former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, at the Ethical Globalization Initiative; at the New York Civil Liberties Union; and as a consultant to and organizer for numerous other environmental, human rights and social justice organizations.

As an undergraduate at Yale University, Ms. Lawson-Remer was the co-founder of STARC (Students Transforming and Resisting Corporations), a national student organization that advocated for corporate responsibility in the face of increased globalization. STARC was a principal organizer of student participation in the Seattle WTO protests in November 1999 and the IMF/World Bank demonstrations in April 2000, and after 9/11 was one of the first civil society organizations to call for a poverty fighting aspect to combating terrorism.

On a lighter note, her exploits include surfing, rockclimbing, and rappelling off the side of the New York Plaza Hotel with a 40 x 60 foot anti-Bush banner http://questionauthority.org/nycplazaaction/ during the 2004 Republican National Convention. Ms. Lawson-Remer has appeared on CBS, CNN, and Democracy Now, and been interviewed by numerous national and local publications, including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Nation, The New York Post, the New Haven Advocate, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and USA Today.

Terra earned her J.D. from NYU School of Law and is currently completing her Ph.D. in Political Economics at NYU’s Law & Society Institute.

Blog Entries by Terra Lawson-Remer

Copenhagen: The Curse of REDD

1 Comments | Posted December 14, 2009 | 05:42 PM (EST)


One hot set of proposals at the Copenhagen climate change negotiations this week would transfer billions from developed to developing countries, by allowing rich country polluters to buy carbon offsets generated through forest conservation in poor countries -- creating a financial incentive to keep forests standing instead of razing them...

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The Real Modern Pirates? MNCs Beyond the Rule of Law

2 Comments | Posted May 25, 2009 | 04:10 AM (EST)


Recently Somali pirates surfaced as an imminent threat to the safety of cargo ships and seafarers. The U.S. government took firm measures in response: last month Navy Seals daringly rescued Captain Richard Phillips from a bobbing lifeboat in the Indian Ocean, shooting his captors while he stood a few feet...

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For Small Entrepreneurs in Developing Countries, Mobile Phones Can Be Path Out of Poverty

Posted April 22, 2009 | 06:11 PM (EST)


At the G20 meeting last month the international community pledged 1.1 trillion to combat the global economic crisis, but the intended beneficiaries of economic development initiatives have a better idea: they're buying mobile phones.

In Fiji, mobile phones now allow any small scale subsistence fisherman with a...

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Dear Governor Palin...

Posted October 3, 2008 | 04:00 AM (EST)


Dear Governor Palin,

During your debate with Senator Biden you said you welcomed the opportunity to speak directly with the American people, "uncensored" by the media. That sounds great. In fact, I'd like to challenge you to a debate: one regular American, me, versus you, the Governor of Alaska.

...
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The U.S. Farm Bill & the Global Food Crisis

Posted May 29, 2008 | 04:14 PM (EST)


Last week Congress passed a pork laden farm bill that could cost American taxpayers up to $289 billion over five years. At the same time, a global food crisis is deepening. Average prices for wheat, rice, and corn have gone up 41 percent since October 2007. Food riots are rocking...

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Hunger Striking for Socially Responsible Capitalism

Posted April 11, 2008 | 06:12 PM (EST)


Members of Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Florida are on a hunger strike, but this is not your parents' SDS (or yours, depending on your generational perspective). For those not steeped in the lore of 1960s' leftist activism, SDS was the linchpin of the 1960s student...

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Toasting Wolfowitz's Departure? Not So Fast

Posted May 24, 2007 | 06:15 PM (EST)


World Bank employees are raising champagne toasts to celebrate the departure of Paul Wolfowitz, but sober-minded critics of the neo-conservative agenda should think twice about raising a glass.

Yes, Wolfowitz embodies the arrogance and high-handed conceit of the Bush administration. Yes, his failure of judgment helped lead us into the...

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