Law and Policy Programme

How can we close the implementation gap, between principle and practice?

From the global to the domestic, States are increasingly engaging with the issue of modern slavery in their legal frameworks. Yet significant gaps remain in anti-slavery laws and national approaches often fail to satisfy international commitments. Disparities between States’ legal frameworks create confusion, prevent effective cooperation, and result in incomplete coverage of the phenomenon. The intersectional nature of modern slavery presents a further challenge for anti-slavery governance, requiring engagement with a variety of different policy domains.

In our Law and Policy Programme, legal scholars, political scientists, sociologists, and scholars of business and area studies are interrogating the law and policy frameworks that operate at the global, regional, and domestic level. They are working to determine the elements of effective anti-slavery governance and to map trends, successes, and failures in its realisation and implementation. This includes work defining the parameters of slavery and related forms of exploitation, investigating the full range of potential mechanisms for modern slavery governance, and engaging victim-centred approaches.

Our Law and Policy Programme adopts an intersectional approach to address the complexities of modern slavery, exploring the intersecting factors that drive modern slavery and how different areas of law and policy can be leveraged in response. This includes consideration of key thematic issues such as gender, migration, conflict, and instability, as well as a wide range of policy domains—from human and labour rights to immigration, family law, public procurement, and trade.

For example, we have launched the world’s first comprehensive database of the domestic legislation and international obligations of all 193 UN Member States with regard to slavery and related forms of exploitation. From this Anti-slavery Legislation Database, we can construct blueprints for anti-slavery law and policy enactment, reform, and implementation around the world, working with government, legislators, and practitioners to lay the legal foundations for a future free from slavery. The database allows States to learn from global practice and comparative analyses in order to develop robust governance frameworks that respond to the changing dynamics of slavery.

Legislation Database