Sam Szoke-Burke

Senior Legal Researcher

Sam Szoke-Burke is a senior legal researcher for the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment’s focus areas of land and agriculture, human rights and investment, and extractive industries. At the Center he leads research projects and provides advice and support on legal and policy issues relating to land and human rights. He also advances practical resources, develops and leads trainings, and designs and facilitates multi-stakeholder convenings. Prior to joining CCSI, he worked for the Land, Environment and Development project at the Legal Assistance Centre, Namibia, where he collaborated with various Indigenous communities on legal matters relating to mineral exploration, ancestral land claims and forced resettlement, and Indigenous representation, among others. He has also worked with various human rights and public interest organizations in the US and Australia, and clerked for Justice Anthony Cavanough, head of the Judicial Review and Appeals List, at the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and a Bachelor of Laws with first class honors from Monash University Australia, and a Master of Laws from New York University School of Law, where he was a Rotary Global Scholar, a Transitional Justice Scholar, and an NYU International Law and Human Rights Fellow. He is admitted to practice in Victoria, Australia.

Selected Publications

• Benefit Sharing, Power, and the Performance of Multi-stakeholder Institutions at Ghana's Ahafo Mine, 2021-01-20
• Mechanisms for Consultation and Free, Prior and Informed Consent in the Negotiation of Investment Contracts, 2020-06
• Handbook on Human Rights Assessment: Chapter 4: Collaborative and participatory approaches to HRIA: the way forward?, 2019
• At the Intersection of Land Grievances and Legal Liability: The Need to Reconsider Contract Rights and Expectations at the Supranational Level, 2017
• Here's the Deal, 2016-10
• Emerging Practices in Community Development Agreements, 2016