Professor Duncan Sheehan

Profile

I joined the Law School in January 2016 after 14 years at the University of East Anglia, where I was, successively, lecturer and senior lecturer in law and finally Professor of Commercial Law, and where I was for three years deputy Head of School. I joined UEA from doing my doctorate on payments by mistake of law at the University of Oxford under the supervision of the late Professor Peter Birks after completing both my undergraduate degree and the BCL there. I am currently Director of the Centre for Business Law and Practice at the Law School, having also held two major leadership roles within the School, most recently as REF 2021 Unit of Assessment Lead, and previously as the Director of Postgraduate Research Studies in which role I was a member of the School Management Team. I am President of the Society of Legal Scholars for the academic year 2024-2025, taking up office on 1 October 2024, and will host the SLS conference at the University of Leeds on 2-4 September 2025. The Society is one of the largest learned societies in the UK with about 3000 members and as well as the annual conference supports a considerable number of seminars and smaller conferences as part of its charitable endeavours. I have previously been the Honorary Membership Secretary of the Society, a member of its Research Committee, subject section convenor for restitution and while at UEA I acted as council representative for 10 years from 2006.

I am an academic member of the Chancery Bar Association. I worked with the City of London Law Society on its Secured Transactions Code Project. I have with the Law Commission on the Advisory Group for their Bills of Sale Project, and their Electronic Trade Documents project. I was appointed to the AHRC Peer Review College in June 2014. I was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland in March and April 2014.

Secured Transactions Law Reform Project
Society of Legal Scholars
Chancery Bar

Responsibilities

• REF Reading Group

Research interests

I am interested in trusts and personal property law, especially secured transactions law, where I organised a conference on Secured Transactions Law Reform at Leeds in 2017. Within personal property law I am increasingly interested in the private law treatment of crypto-assets such as bitcoin or non-fungible tokens,and recently organised a conference with Karina Patricio Ferreira Lima on Digital Assets: Private Law, Regulation and Practice in May 2024. I am also interested in the law of unjust enrichment, and examine many of the issues involved from a comparative perspective, looking particularly at the mixed jurisdictions: Scotland and South Africa and organised a conference to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of An Introduction to the Law of Restitution by Peter Birks in 2019. I also examine the underlying philosophical rationale for the law of unjust enrichment and specific unjust factors and have applied philosophical theories of action and intention to the law, although I have a wider interest in private law theory more generally. I was interviewed by Jim Baxter for a podcast on Ethics Untangled on “Is Unjust Enrichment a Thing?” released in November 2023

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113237/13765584-8-is-unjust-enrichment-a-thing-with-duncan-sheehan

Selected works of Duncan Sheehan

Professional memberships

• Society of Legal Scholars
• Chancery Bar Association

Student education

I teach Trusts at undergraduate level and International Credit & Security Law, and Principles of International Finance at postgraduate level.

I have also taught widely across commercial and private law subjects including at PG level, International Trade Finance and at UG level, Contract, Land Law, Restitution, Company law and Commercial law.

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Business Law and Practice