Pedro Magalhães Batista
- Position: Lecturer in Commercial, Corporate, and Banking Law
- Areas of expertise: Banking law; banking supervision; financial regulation; corporate governance; law and economics; stablecoins; crypto-assets; fintech; AI in regulation; political economy.
- Email: P.MagalhaesBatista@leeds.ac.uk
- Location: 2.26 The Liberty Building
- Website: | LinkedIn | Googlescholar
Profile
I have joined the University of Leeds in October 2021 as a Lecturer in Commercial, Corporate, and Banking Law. My research sits at the intersection of regulation, finance, and political economy. I study how legal rules shape, and sometimes misshape, the organization of financial markets, and how technological change unsettles inherited regulatory categories.
My current work focuses on the political economy of banking supervision. In particular, I examine supervisory failure, delay, escalation, coordination costs, and inaction, asking how the behavior of supervisors within the administrative state affects systemic risk, financial stability, and the credibility of prudential regulation. I am interested not only in the content of financial rules, but also in the institutional conditions under which those rules are interpreted, enforced, and sometimes left unused.
A related strand of my research examines digital finance, especially stablecoins and the legal gray zones surrounding crypto-assets and decentralized finance. I also study AI-enhanced regulation and supervision, with particular attention to the conditions under which supervisory technologies can improve public administration without sacrificing legality, accountability, or sound risk judgment.
Methodologically, I draw on law and economics and institutional analysis to study how incentives, information frictions, and administrative design shape regulatory outcomes. Across these fields, I am interested in regulatory frameworks that are clearer, more enforceable, and more attentive to institutional incentives, while preserving the conditions for innovation, entrepreneurship, and financial stability.
Research interests
My research examines banking law, financial regulation, and digital finance through law-and-economics and institutional analysis. I focus on the political economy of banking supervision, including supervisory delay, escalation, coordination costs, and enforcement inaction, and how these shape systemic risk and financial stability. A related strand of my work studies stablecoins, crypto-assets, decentralized finance, and AI-assisted supervision, with particular attention to legality, accountability, and regulatory design. More information and selected papers are available on my SSRN, Google Scholar, and Personal Website.
Qualifications
- PhD candidate in Law (Law & Economics of Money and Finance), Goethe University Frankfurt
- LL.M. in International Law (Investments, Trade, and Arbitration), Heidelberg University
- LL.B., University Center of Brasilia
Student education
I teach across undergraduate and postgraduate areas of corporate, banking, contract, and international financial law. My role includes teaching, assessment, feedback, and module leadership, with an emphasis on helping students develop clear legal analysis, institutional understanding, and the ability to connect doctrine with markets, regulation, and public policy.
Research groups and institutes
- Centre for Business Law and Practice