GCDC Members Participate in Workshop on the Future of International Development

On 16–17 April 2026, GCDC members Dr Ewan Smith and Dr Luis Soto-Tamayo participated in a workshop in Washington, DC – the first in a three-part series on The Future of International Development: Law, Regulation and Technology (FID). The GCDC will arrange a forthcoming workshop in London in July (further details below).

The Washington workshop was convened by Professor Matthew Erie at the American Society of International Law. The event brought together leading scholars, practitioners, and experts in international development from more than five countries. Across eight panels, discussions focused on the challenges posed by the current multifaceted crisis affecting legal development assistance.

Participants debated how to address international development continuity given the current budgetary shortfalls, emphasising the importance of development partnerships across public and private sectors, domestic and international actors. They challenged the traditional donor-recipient dynamic in favour of more collaborative models which help recipient communities to shape the development process.

A recurring concern was the need to shift from reforming laws to reforming systems. Improving laws on paper is not enough. Participants questioned the assumption that better legal frameworks automatically produce better outcomes. Linked to this was a call to reframe the approach of legal professionals: not merely as lawyers, but as protectors of the rule of law, working alongside politicians, civil society, and communities. The key constraint at present is a lack of political will, making systemic reform extremely difficult to achieve in practice, regardless of the quality of the evidence or the ambition of the agenda.

On 3 July 2026, UCL’s Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism will host the second workshop in a closed-door session at Bentham House and one of the Inns of Court. The London workshop will amplify the FID project, with a particular focus on donor and recipient state perspectives in Europe and Africa. Discussions will explore the constitutional structures that enable and constrain development and will interrogate the role of democracy and rule-of-law conditionality in shaping development priorities. At stake is a fundamental question: what do we gain, and what do we lose, when development becomes entangled with broader foreign policy agendas?

If you would like to attend our July conference, please contact Dr Ewan Smith at ewan.smith@ucl.ac.uk.