2nd Workshop on 'The Future of Business Law: Diversifying Voices and Perspectives'

This will be an in-person, one-day workshop featuring discussion panels and a roundtable dedicated to examining new and emerging topics in business law.

Event Overview

Organized by Virág Blazsek of the University of Leeds and Clara Martins Pereira of Durham University, ‘The Future of Business Law: Diversifying Voices and Perspectives’ workshop aims to attract, inspire, and showcase voices and perspectives that are currently underrepresented in business law. The organizers would like to present research and teaching in emerging areas of business law, in particular but not exclusively on law and technology-related issues, that challenge traditional assumptions about the role that companies, businesses and the financial system can play in shaping the future of our global society and local communities.

This workshop is directed at the community of academics researching and/or teaching emerging topics in business law, and attendance from postgraduate research students and other early career researchers is particularly encouraged. It is sponsored by the Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP) and the Strategic Development Fund of the University of Leeds School of Law

Event Details

The workshop will take place on Friday, 25 April from 9.30am–5.15pm. It will be held in room G.32 of the Liberty Building at the University of Leeds. Attendance will be free for participants and participation includes materials, lunch, and refreshments.

Registration

Please register in advance via Tickettailor.

Programme

Coffee and Opening Remarks (9.30–10.00)

1.  Corporate Governance (10.00–11.15)

• Chair: Virág Blazsek (Leeds)
• Andreas Kokkinis (Birmingham) – Recognising a Duty of Care to Prevent Harm for Corporate Controllers: A Normative Analysis
• Silvie Rohr (Hamburg) – Corporate Purpose: A Management Concept and the Role of Contract Design
• Emeka Chiedozie (Brighton) and Victor Ediagbonya (Brighton) – The Balance of Powers between Directors, Shareholders, and External Auditors in Anglophone West African Countries

2. Company and Commercial Law (11.30–12.45)

• Chair: Federica Casano (Leeds) 
• Gerry McCormack (Leeds) – Cross Border Insolvency and the English Common Law
• Shouyu Chong (Leeds) – Equity in Business: Drawing some Extended Principles from the Enforcement of Forum Selection Agreements in Commercial Contracts
• Clare James (Leeds) – Supermarkets and the Right to Food in the UK

Break (12.45–13.00)

3. Lunch Roundtable: New Teaching and Research Methods  (13.00–14.00)

• Chair: Clara Martins Pereira (Durham) 
• Sarah Wilson (York)
• Clara Duarte Fernandes & Fernando Rister de Sousa Lima (Mackenzie Presbyterian University, Brazil)
• Charlotte Ellis (York)

4. Climate and Sustainability (14.15–15.30)

• Chair: Federico Lupo-Pasini (Durham) 
• Catherine Malecki (Rennes) – The New Climate Corporate Duties: The Bright Future of Sustainable Corporate Governance?
• Mariia Domina (Lorraine) – Corporate sustainability due diligence directive 2024: towards companies too big to ignore?
• Clare Patton (Leeds) – Enhancing Supply Chain Sustainability for Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) in Emergencies: Lessons in Ireland  

5. New Technologies (15.30–17.00)

• Chair: Andrea Zappalaglio (Leeds)
• Ilias Ioannou (Bristol) – Relational Trade Networks: Governing Blockchain Trading Platforms Through Contracts
• Ilias Kapsis (City Law School, London) and Neeti Shikha (UWE, Bristol) – The Inevitability of Legal Personhood for AI: The Case of Robo-Directors
• Igor Szpotakowski (Leeds) – Private ordering, generative AI and the ‘platformisation paradigm’: What can we learn from comparative analysis of models terms and conditions?

Refreshments and Closing Remarks (17.00–17.15)

Optional Social (17.30–18.30)

• Terrace (Leeds University Union, Lifton Place, Leeds, LS2 9JT, Leeds LS2 9JS)