About me
For over twenty years, I have practiced at the intersection of human rights and business—as a human rights activist, academic, lawyer, and documentary filmmaker. Today, I serve as an Expert in Business & Human Rights at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and Research Fellow of the Corporate Responsibility Initiative at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Prior to re-entering academia in 2012, I was engaged in multidisciplinary creative and professional pursuits in diverse contexts in Latin America, Canada, and Europe. I have worked for, advised, and collaborated with an array of community and legal professional organizations, including First Nations in Manitoba, the Chiefs of Ontario, a leading labour law firm in Canada, a leading Geneva-based international dispute resolution law firm, a Toronto-based public interest litigation law firm, an experimental agro-ecotourism cooperative in Costa Rica (Coopeunioro R.L.), Organización de Nacionalidades Huaoranis de la Amazonia Ecuatoriana (ONHAE), Organización Indígena Secoya del Ecuador, Organizacion de La Nacionalidad Indigena Siona del Ecuador, Centro de Derechos Económicos y Sociales, Acción Ecológica, La Red de Monitoreo Ambiental, Harvard Human Rights Program, Canadian Institute for Environmental Law & Policy, Canadian Lawyers' Association for International Human Rights, International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), and the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto.
I recently presented a major paper at the Global Business and Human Rights Scholars’ Association entitled, "Dueling Over Outcomes in the Multinational Arena: From Value Maximization to Stakeholder Theory." My international award-winning feature documentary film entitled "Under Rich Earth" (2009) continues to be acquired by university libraries and is used in course syllabi in law schools and in other academic departments. Notably, "Under Rich Earth" was formally adopted as evidence and was cited extensively by the international investment arbitration tribunal in the groundbreaking Copper Mesa Mining Corp. v. Ecuador decision of 2016 (P.C.A. 2012-2, Cremades, Simma, Veeder). Recently, Under Rich Earth was discussed in Professor Jean Ho’s treatise on “State Responsibility for Breaches of Investment Contracts” (2018 Cambridge University Press). My next research-based feature documentary film, entitled "Kriegzeit und Blumenkunst (War and the Art of Floristry)" is slated for release and distribution in 2020/2021.
You can reach me by email at: mrogge@sjd.law.harvard.edu
I look forward to a fruitful exchange.
