Dr Katrina Peake

Biography

Professional Biography

Dr Katrina Peake is a Lecturer in Law (Early Career) at The Open University, where she teaches Business and Employment Law, Land Law, and Exploring Legal Meaning. She has presented her work at national and international conferences and has experience delivering seminars to academic, policy, and practitioner audiences. Katrina completed her LLB (first class), LLM (Distinction), and PhD at the University of Nottingham. Her doctoral thesis, funded by the Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership, received the DJ Harris Prize for Best Doctoral Thesis in the School of Law (2019/2020).

Research Interests

Katrina’s research centres on international trade law, labour rights, corporate social responsibility, modern slavery, and international development. She is currently developing research on labour rights in the cocoa Global Value Chain (GVC) through her project, “From Exploitation to Equity: A Trade-Based Approach to Responsible Cocoa,” which examines labour standards in Côte d'Ivoire and Ecuador and analyses UK and EU trade instruments, including free trade agreements and the forthcoming EU forced labour ban. She is a member of the OU's Centre for the Study of Global Development (CSGD) hub on poverty, inequality and social protection.

Her PhD investigated the extent to which EU trade and sustainable development instruments promote labour rights in the South Asian garment industry, with detailed case studies on Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam and relevant trade schemes, including the generalised scheme of preferences and conditionality.

Beyond her doctoral work, she has contributed to the EU-funded, multi-institutional, “Fostering Human Rights Among European Policies” (FRAME) project, examining EU trade, development, and human rights engagement in Bangladesh following the Rana Plaza factory collapse and the EU’s engagement with civil society actors. She disseminated research findings at international conferences, including representing the FRAME project in New Delhi.

Prior to joining the OU, she was a Research Fellow at the Rights Lab, where she worked on projects addressing Indo-Pacific modern slavery risks, Brexit and labour exploitation, and commercial sexual exploitation policy in South Asia.

Teaching Interests

An Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Katrina’s teaching interests include EU law, human rights law, business law, employment law, and international relations. Before joining the OU, she taught EU Law, Employment Law, and International Relations of the EU at the University of Nottingham and completed the university’s Associate Teachers Programme.

Impact and Engagement

Katrina has worked as a Visiting Scholar with the International Labour Organization in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, conducting interviews with garment-sector stakeholders, participating in factory visits, and delivering seminars on EU trade and labour rights.

She also served as a Clinical Fellow with the HEC–NYU Public Interest Clinic, working with Clean Clothes Campaign and the International Trade Union Confederation. Katrina supervised students on a submission to the EU Ombudsman concerning EU responses to labour rights violations in Bangladesh.

She is committed to public engagement and translational research, having organised a series of events on labour rights in Nottingham’s lace and knitting industries in collaboration with local heritage groups and museums.

Publications

Published Articles 

Katrina Peake and Jeff Kenner, ‘‘Slaves to Fashion’ in Bangladesh and the EU: Promoting Decent Work’ [2020] European Labour Law Journal 1 

Jeff Kenner and Katrina Peake, ‘The Bangladesh Sustainability Compact: An Effective Exercise of Global Experimentalist EU Governance?’ (2017) 19 Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 86  

Book Chapters 

Jeff Kenner and Katrina Peake, ‘Article 33’ in Steve Peers et al (eds), The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: A Commentary (Bloomsbury Publishing 2021) 

Jeff Kenner, Katrina Peake and Stuart Wallace, ‘The EU’s Engagement with Civil Society’ in Jan Wouters and others (eds), The European Union and Human Rights: Law and Policy (Oxford University Press 2020)  

Reports 

Timothy Masiko, Sara Thornton, Ergul Celiksoy, Katarina Schwarz, Oana Burcu, Katrina Peake, Todd Landman and Facundo Albornoz Crespo, ‘Harnessing UK Trade and Investment to address Indo-Pacific Modern Slavery Risks’ (Modern Slavery & Human Rights, May 2024) <www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/beacons-of-excellence/rights-lab/resources/reports-and-briefings/2024/may/trimsfull-report-final.pdf> 

Katarina Schwarz, Katrina Peake and Ana Valverde-Cano, ‘CSE Policy and Practices Study: Bangladesh and India Legal and Policy Compendium’ (University of Nottingham Rights Lab, 2021) <www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/beacons-of-excellence/rights-lab/resources/reports-and-briefings/2022/march/child-sexual-exploitation-policy-and-practices-study.pdf> 

Deanna Davy, Katarina Schwarz, Hannah Baumeister, Ana Valverde-Cano and Katrina Peake, ‘What works to end modern slavery? A Review on Policy and Interventions in the Context of Crisis’ (University of Nottingham Rights Lab, 2020) https://delta87.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Crisis-Report-141220.pdf  

Katarina Schwarz, Todd Landman and Katrina Peake, ‘Advancing Human Rights in Asia through Trade after Brexit’ (Policy Brief, Asia Research Institute, The University of Nottingham 2019) https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/asiaresearch/documents/policy-briefs/policy-brief-schwarz.pdf  

Katrina Peake and others, ‘The integration of EU development, trade and human rights policies’ (FRAME Deliverable 9.4, 2016)  

Katrina Sissins and others, ‘Structures and mechanisms to strengthen EU engagement with non-state actors in the protection and promotion of human rights’ (FRAME Deliverable 7.3, 2016) 

Book Reviews 

Katrina Peake, ‘Eva Brems and Ellen Desmet (eds), Integrated Human Rights in Practice: Rewriting Human Rights Decisions (Edward Elgar Publishing 2017)’ (2018) 18(4) Human Rights Law Review 797 (Book Review) 

Katrina Peake, ‘Joe Wills, Contesting World Order? Socioeconomic Rights and Global Justice Movements (Cambridge University Press 2017)’ (2018) 18(3) Human Rights Law Review 616 (Book Review)