Minju Kang

Minju Kang is a post-doctoral fellow at ChainGE Lab and a visiting scholar at Seoul National University Law Research Institute. She earned her Ph.D. in human rights law and social law from Seoul National University, with a dissertation titled “A Social Law Approach to Business and Human Rights: Reconceptualizing Stakeholder Engagement.” She is the first scholar to earn a dual specialization in human rights law and social law at SNU Law School. She also holds an LL.M. from Yale Law School.

Minju has conducted research at leading institutions worldwide, including the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (UK), the Integrative Research Institute Law & Society at Humboldt University (Germany), and the Minerva Center for Human Rights at Tel Aviv University (Israel). In addition to her academic work, she has contributed as an advocate and legal researcher to various public interest organizations, including the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, where she served as Korea Representative. She has also worked with Advocates for Public Interest Law (APIL), the SNU Center for Public Interest and Human Rights Law, the Korean Women’s Development Institute, and the North Korean Refugees Foundation. Her work has been recognized with awards from the Seoul Bar Association & BKL Dong Cheon Foundation,  and the SNU Human Rights Center. She has presented her research at international venues, including the Bonavero Institute at the University of Oxford, Waseda University, and Renmin University of China. Beyond her legal studies, Minju holds a master’s degree in comparative literature from Seoul National University, where she explored human rights and Arendtian action in her thesis, “Writing as Righting: Human Rights, Arendtian Action, and North Korean Refugee Life Writings.”

Her research interests focus on business and human rights (BHR) and meaningful stakeholder engagement (MSE) in the context of globalization, transnational business activities, and emerging technologies. At ChainGE Lab, she will explore frontline stakeholder engagement and alternative forms of collective bargaining in global value chains.