Prof. Balakrishnan Rajagopal

Associate Professor of Law and Development
Director, Program on Human Rights and Justice (PHRJ)

Primary DLC

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

MIT Room: 9-518

Areas of Interest and Expertise

International Legal Process
International Human Rights Law and Development
Property
International Development and Regional Planning (IDRP)
National and International Security
Globalization

Research Summary

rofessor Rajagopal's current research is in five areas: a) development-induced displacement including through large projects; b) human rights and globalization, especially relating to corporate social responsibility; c) economic, social and cultural rights particularly relating to environment, land and housing, in comparative public and private law; 4) social movements and multi-level governance including new ways of organizing political power and authority; and 5) the relationship between critical social and legal theory and progressive practice in planning and economic development. In the past, he assisted the World Commission on Dams to develop a legal and policy framework on the human rights implications of large dams and has consulted with UNDP on the articulation of a human rights approach to development planning and policy. He has lectured on economic and social rights at the Institute for International Judges and on housing rights in Porto Alegre, Brazil. His research is focused primarily on South and Southeast Asia and also on the legal systems of Brazil and South Africa. He is currently working on his next book, which is a comparative study of the judicialization/legalization of socio-economic rights in Brazil, India and South Africa. He is also directing a major research project on manual scavenging and sustainable sanitation in India.

Recent Work