Supriya Routh

Supriya Routh is an Associate Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria. His research interests include theoretical conceptualizations of work and labour law, workers’ organization initiatives, international labour law, atypical and informal workers in the global South, human rights, and human development and sustainability. Supriya has an internationally-recognized research agenda in labour and employment law with an emphasis on the legal exclusion of the vast majority of non-industrial workers in the global South. He often engages the disciplines of law, political philosophy, and sociology in his socio-legal research. His research agenda combines empirical investigation with theoretical exploration.

Supriya’s current SSHRC-funded research (2020-2022) examines indigenous normative ideas on the relationship between work/livelihood and sustainability. By examining the idea of sustainable development as contemplated by the Tsilhqot’in nation in British Columbia, his research aims to contribute to non-Eurocentric legal imaginations in regulating sustainable development by generating empirical data and contributing to the theoretical literature on law, postcolonialism, and development. Supriya is a co-investigator in another SSHRC-funded research (2021-2024) led by Judy Fudge (McMaster University) that seeks to examine the complex interaction among modern slavery laws, corporate social responsibility initiatives, and worker-led social responsibility initiatives in addressing the problem of forced labour and modern slavery in global supply chains. This socio-legal research will evaluate modern slavery laws, policy literature, and undertake qualitative interviews in Canada, Bangladesh, and Honduras (following some selected Canadian corporations’ supply chains) in developing a better understanding of transnational legal governance and its implications for modern slavery laws in curbing forced labour and modern slavery from global supply chains involving Canadian corporations. Supriya is also a co-investigator in an international project funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) (2021-2024) led by Julie Motte-Baumvol (Université de Paris), which will examine social protection for ageing migrants in their origin and destination countries. This research will analyze legal transfers, cross-fertilization, and hybridization among legal systems entangled in the migrant movements. As part of this project, Supriya will evaluate legal entitlements of migrant workers in India.

Supriya is the author of Enhancing Capabilities through Labour Law: Informal Workers in India (Routledge, 2014) and academic journal articles in the areas of labour law, informal workers, trade unionism, regulation of work and environment, corporate social responsibility, right to information, and legal education. He is the co-editor (with Vando Borghi) of Workers and the Global Informal Economy: Interdisciplinary Perspective(Routledge, 2016). He has also co-authored/co-edited teaching and reference books, namely, the Labour and Employment Law: Cases, Materials, and Commentary, Ninth Edition (Irwin Law, 2018), and Amartya Sen and Law (Routledge, 2020).

Supriya teaches Contracts, Individual Employment Relationships, Labour Law, and co-teaches (with several colleagues) the introductory Legal Process course. Prior to joining UVic, he taught at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS) in India.

Supriya accepts graduate students (LLM and PhD) in the broad areas of labour and employment law; sustainable development and law / regulation of livelihoods and sustainability; critical studies of human rights; socio-legal studies on social movements; and socio-legal theory.