Liberty Fellows
Our Liberty Fellows scheme has attracted distinguished scholars from around the world to work specifically with our research centres.
2023
Professor Richard Squire, Alpin J. Cameron Chair in Law, Fordham University School of Law, New York City, United States.
Professor Squire visited the Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP) as the Liberty Fellow in May 2023. His research expertise lies in the areas of corporate law, corporate bankruptcy, banking crises, and securities regulation. The Liberty Fellowship enabled Professor Squire to engage with staff and PhD students through various research and teaching activities at the University of Leeds School of Law. Professor Squire was hosted by the Director of the CBLP, Professor Peter Whelan. Professor Squire held a CBLP research seminar organized by Dr. Suren Gomstian that featured commentary by Professor Sarah Paterson (London School of Economics Law School). Professor Squire also spoke at the Leeds Financial and FinTech Law Conference, organised by Dr Virág Blazsek, and he delivered a keynote address at the University of Leeds School of Law’s Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, organised by PhD students Valeria Caroli and Erika Moranduzzo.
2021
Professor Steven L. Schwarcz, Stanley A. Star Distinguished Professor of Law & Business, Duke University School of Law, Durham, NC, United States.
Professor Schwarcz served as the Liberty Fellow at the Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP) in February 2021. Professor Schwarcz is the Stanley A. Star Distinguished Professor of Law & Business at Duke University and Founding Director of Duke’s interdisciplinary Global Capital Markets Center (later renamed the Global Financial Markets Center). His areas of research and scholarship include insolvency and bankruptcy law, international finance, capital markets, systemic risk, corporate governance, and commercial law. During his Liberty Fellowship, Professor Schwarcz engaged with staff and PhD students through various research and teaching activities at the University of Leeds School of Law. He was hosted by the Director of the CBLP, Professor Peter Whelan. Professor Schwarcz delivered a presentation on "Regulating Digital Currencies: Central Bank-Sponsored and Stablecoins" that featured commentary by Dr Jason Allen (Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany). The seminar was moderated by Dr Suren Gomtsian, University of Leeds. Professor Schwarcz also delivered a seminar on "Practicing at the New York Bar", which was moderated by Trevor Clark, University of Leeds, and another seminar on ‘“Macromedical” Regulation’, alongside his colleague from Duke University, Professor Barak Richman, moderated by Professor Jose Miola, University of Leeds (currently University of Leicester), co-hosted by the CBLP and the Centre for Law and Social Justice.
2019
Professor Andrew Goldsmith, Strategic Professor in Criminal Justice – Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor at the College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University.
Professor Goldsmith visited the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies (CCJS) in spring 2019. Professor Goldsmith is an expert in the fields of policing and new technologies, transnational organised crime, police governance and accountability, corruption and integrity assurance; transnational policing and security. The Fellowship will be used to continue and strengthen existing collaborations in a number of organised crime and cybercrime projects with Professor David Wall and other CCJS members, particularly on the EPSRC-funded project on victimisation in ransomware comparing data on victimisation between the UK and Australia.
Professor Jacques de Maillard, Professor of Political Sciences at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin and Deputy Director of the Center for Sociological Research on Law and Criminal Justice Institutions.
Professor de Maillard visited the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies (CCJS) in summer 2019. Professor de Maillard is an expert in the comparative study of policing and the Fellowship forms part of ongoing collaborative work with members of the CCJS. The Fellowship will be used to develop work particularly in the areas of: governance of policing, neo-managerial reforms and the pluralisation of policing. Planned outcomes include jointly authored publications and further collaborations. The Fellowship will also be used to facilitate continuing strategic discussions with CCJS, particularly in relation to its Everyday Political Economies of Plural Policing network.
2018
Dr Vicky Comino, Senior Lecturer, TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Australia
Dr Comino visited the Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP) in summer 2018. Dr Comino's research expertise lies in the areas of corporate law, in particular the regulation of corporate misconduct. The Liberty Fellowship built on a collaboration with Professors Andrew Keay and Joan Loughrey and enabled Dr Comino to undertake a comparative study on corporate regulation and strategies in various jurisdictions, including Australia, the UK and US. Planned outcomes included developing international solutions that will inform effective and legitimate legal and policy strategies to tackle corporate wrongdoing, exploring whether public regulator such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the US Securities Exchange Commission should be established in the UK. The visit was further used to strengthen the relationship with CBLP with the view to work closely on future research projects.
Professor Luke McNamara, Co-Director of the Centre for Crime, Law and Justice at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Professor McNamara visited the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies (CCJS) in autumn 2018. The Fellowship was aimed at continuing the relationship with CCJS to develop research collaborations and a staff exchange programme. Outcomes from the visit include a developing research collaboration with Dr Anna Barker and Dr Jen Hendry around the theme of ‘Regulating Recreation’ (with Dr Julia Quilter, University of Wollongong). The visit followed Professor Adam Crawford’s appointment as Distinguished Visiting Professorial Fellow at UNSW Law in spring 2018, strengthening the strategic relationship between the two centres. Since, Professor McNamara’s visit to the School has formalised bilateral relations between CCJS and the Centre for Crime, Law and Justice, following a visit by the Head of School Professor Alastair Mullis and colleagues to UNSW in early 2019. Further staff exchanges (including the visit of Dr Phillip Wadds to CCJS in May 2019) and inter-institutional activities are planned for 2019.
Emeritus Professor Margaret Thornton FAASA, FAAL, Australian National University, Australia.
Professor Thornton visited the Centre for Innovation and Research in Legal Education (CIRLE) and the Centre for Law and Social Justice (CLSJ) in late spring 2018. Professor Thornton is a socio-legal and feminist scholar with research expertise in Feminist legal theory, anti-discrimination law and policy, human rights law and policy, law and gender, legal education and the legal profession. The Fellowship strengthened ongoing collaborations with Professor Hilary Sommerlad and formed part of a wider project to compare NewLaw developments in the UK with those occurring in Australia. This involved meetings with local and national professional executives and law firm personnel as well as exploring a range of relevant theoretical issues. Professor Thornton gave the keynote lecture for the CIRLE Annual Symposium ‘Educating for Uncertainty: Education in Law and Criminal Justice in an Uncertain World’ as well as a public lecture ‘The Uberisation of Legal Practice’, on the ramifications of new technologies for legal practice. As well as discussions with Professor Thornton also spent time with a range of colleagues, postgraduate researchers and industry professionals to discuss her work in the areas of legal practice and legal education.
2016
Professor Charles O’Kelley, Director of the Adolf A. Berle Jr. Center on Corporations, Law and Society at the School of Law, Seattle University.
Professor O’Kelley visited the Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBPL) and Centre for Law and Social Justice (CLSJ) in spring 2016. Professor O’Kelley is an expert in corporate governance and Delaware corporation law, and has also been a noted litigant establishing marriage equality laws in the US. He directs the Adolf A. Berle, Jr. Center on Corporations, Law and Society that holds the prestigious Berle symposium. Professor O’Kelley gave a paper to faculty, engaged in discussions with L&SJ and School of Earth and Environment colleagues and attended the inaugural conference on Chinese and English Commercial Law organised by the China-Britain Joint Research Centre on Commercial Law conference with the East China University of Political Science and Law.
2015
Professor Christopher M. Bruner, Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law, School of Law, University of Georgia.
Professor Bruner visited the Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP) in autumn 2015. Professor Bruner is an expert in corporate, securities and financial law, including international and comparative dimensions of these fields. The Fellowship enabled a series of discussions with Professors Andrew Keay and Joan Loughrey and other members of the CBLP, the Centre for Law and Social Justice as well as colleagues at the Business School. Professor Bruner led a workshop for staff and students based on his monograph ‘Corporate Governance in the Common-Law World: The Political Foundations of Shareholder Power’ (Cambridge University Press, 2013), which presented a new comparative theory to understand the relationship between regulatory structures, the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders.