Rate My Professor Kevin Sobel-Read

Dr Kevin Sobel-Read is an Associate Professor in the School of Law and Justice at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He is a US-trained lawyer, legal scholar, and anthropologist with a decade of experience practicing complex civil litigation at Morrison & Foerster LLP in New York City and Ellis & Winters LLP in North Carolina. Sobel-Read holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University (2012), with his doctoral thesis titled “Sovereignty, Law, and Capital in the Age of Globalization,” based on fieldwork in Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, the Cook Islands, and among the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; an MA in Cultural Anthropology from Duke (2009); a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law (2002); and a Bachelor of Arts from New York University (1999). Previously, he served as Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke University School of Law (2013-2014), Visiting Assistant Professor in Duke’s Department of Cultural Anthropology (2012-2014), and JD/MA Program Coordinator at Duke.

His research specializations include global value chains, examining law's role in international commerce, supply chain accountability for labor and environmental issues, and incentives for ethical trade; sovereignty, with a focus on Indigenous sovereignty such as First Nations in Australia and American Indians, and sovereignty of small island nations like the Cook Islands; and the intersections of law, anthropology, capital flows, and governance. Sobel-Read co-created and coordinates the Newcastle Law School’s Community Legal Development Project, a work-integrated learning course, and conceived the First Nations Business Project, which provides free legal services to Indigenous business owners in Australia and develops resources for economic development and self-determination. He has led student legal internships in the Cook Islands since 2016, supporting legislative drafting, policy advice, and protections for human rights and climate change. Key publications include “Global Value Chains: A Framework for Analysis” (Transnational Legal Theory, 2014), “Recalibrating Contract Law: Choses in Action, Global Value Chains, and the Enforcement of Obligations Outside of Privity” (Tulane Law Review, 2018), “Reimagining the Unimaginable: Law and the Ongoing Transformation of Global Value Chains into Integrated Legal Entities” (European Review of Contract Law, 2020), and “A New Model of Sovereignty in the Contemporary Era of Integrated Global Commerce: What Anthropology Contributes to the Shortcomings of Legal Scholarship” (Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, 2016).