The Centre for Business Law and Practice are delighted to announce a new Advisory Board member
Dr Winnie Tarinyeba Kiryabwire is an internationally accomplished insolvency, corporate, and banking law expert with experience in both practice and academia.
Dr Kiryabwire is the most recent, eighth addition to the Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP)'s renewed and extended Advisory Board, a process started in December 2024 as part of the CBLP's long-term strategy.
Dr Kiryabwire earned her first law degree in Uganda, a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, and both a master’s and a PhD from Stanford Law School. She is an Associate Professor of Law at the School of Law, Makerere University, Uganda, where she teaches Corporate Finance Law, Corporate Governance, Law of Banking, and Law of Business Associations.
She is a member of INSOL International and the International Insolvency Institute, an advisory member of the Singapore Global Restructuring Initiative (SGRI), a member of the Ideation Committee and Emerging markets and Developing Economies task force of the Insolvency Law Academy (India), and a member of the Academic Coordination Committee for the Postgraduate Insolvency Program at National Law University, Delhi.
Dr Kiryabwire recently contributed a chapter to the book Corporate Restructuring Law in Flux edited by Jennifer Payne and Kristin van Zwieten. The book analyses recent developments in English corporate restructuring law from a range of comparative and theoretical perspectives, exploring some of the most difficult aspects of the design of domestic restructuring laws and their application in cross-border cases.
Restructuring reforms in Africa and the problem of 'misfitted' transplants
Dr Kiryabwire’s chapter 'Restructuring Reforms in Africa and the Problem of 'Misfitted' Transplants', focuses on restructuring law reforms in various jurisdictions across Africa, most of which are closely modelled on restructuring laws from the Global North – particularly those of the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.
While legal transplantation is common in both public and private law, the chapter highlights the challenges associated with such transplantation and identifies key factors that policymakers in African jurisdictions need to consider, including the structure of debt markets, the functioning of courts, the development of the insolvency profession, and the nature of corporate entities. Failure to pay attention to these nuances represents a missed opportunity, as effective restructuring frameworks are key enablers of economic growth.
Enriching the CBLP’s comparative and global research agenda
According to Dr Virág Blazsek, CBLP Deputy Director, the book, and particularly Dr Kiryabwire’s chapter, is very significant because it offers a timely and critical analysis of how restructuring laws imported from the Global North often fail to align with the economic and institutional realities of emerging economies. Dr Kiryabwire’s contribution is highly relevant to the CBLP, as it enriches the Centre’s comparative and global research agenda on corporate and insolvency law.
Dr Virág Blazsek says:
Dr Kiryabwire’s recent appointment is in line with the CBLP’s strategy to actively seeking Global North–South perspectives within the existing research clusters, and to deepen collaboration and research in developing economies.
Dr Kiryabwire shared that she is excited about this “opportunity to contribute to global thought leadership on corporate and financial law while also elevating insights from Africa’s rapidly evolving markets.”
Discover more about CBLP’s Advisory Board and other experts here.
