Affiliation: University of Edinburgh
Keywords: Legal Theory, Social Theory, Law and Development, Expertise, Comparative Law, Interdisciplinarity
Full profile:
Deval is Reader in International Economic Law at Edinburgh Law School, where he was Lecturer from 2020-2023. He held a personal postdoc at the Geneva Graduate Institute from 2017-2020, prior to which he took his doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. He also has a decade of experience working for the World Bank on rule of law and governance in sub-Saharan Africa; as well as advising the UN on rule of law issues.
Deval’s work focuses on law and development, administrative law and regulation, theories of the state, and patterns of knowledge and authority across the Global North and South. His articles appear in leading journals in law, political science, and development studies. His work has been recognised in a range of venues: he is a Member of the Young Academy of Scotland and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; and he received a “Chancellor’s Award” from the University of Edinburgh (one of the university’s highest honours). His work has also been supported by grants from funders in the Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, and USA; including as a PI on a major SNSF Sinergia grant called “Reversing the Gaze”. He is also a committed mentor to early career researchers from underrepresented communities in the academy, and was highly commended for this work by the University of Edinburgh’s Susan Manning Award.