Dr Clare Patton

Profile

I joined the School of Law in 2023. Before joining Leeds, I held academic posts at Queen’s University Belfast, where I was Lecturer in Law and prior to that I was an ESRC funded Research Fellow.

I completed my PhD at Queen’s University Belfast in 2018. My academic background is in law, with particular interests in business and human rights, health law, corporate accountability, and regulation.

Responsibilities

• Module Leader for International Corporate Governance
• Canada Link Tutor

Research interests

My research sits at the intersection of business and human rights, health law, and maternal and child health. I am particularly interested in how legal and regulatory frameworks can be used to protect breastfeeding, support infant and young child feeding, and address the commercial determinants of health.

My work examines the role of corporate actors in shaping health environments, with a particular focus on commercial milk formula marketing, emergency preparedness, corporate accountability, and rights-based approaches to maternal and infant health.

I have contributed to research and policy work with national and international partners, including the World Health Organization and Baby Feeding Law Group Ireland. Recent work includes contributions to the WHO Regional Office for Europe report on commercial determinants of noncommunicable diseases and the Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies on the Island of Ireland: A Guidance Document for Creating an All-Island Preparedness Plan.

Qualifications

• PhD
• LLM
• LLB

Student education

I teach across undergraduate and postgraduate areas of company law, international corporate governance (for which I am module leader), business and human rights, and health-related regulation. My teaching is focussed on helping students connect doctrinal legal analysis with wider questions of power, accountability, social justice, and public policy.

I am particularly interested in supporting students to develop confident, critical, and well-structured legal analysis. Across my teaching, I encourage students to engage closely with legal materials while also considering the social, political, and commercial contexts in which law operates.

I supervise undergraduate, taught postgraduate, and doctoral research in areas connected to corporate accountability, business and human rights, corporate governance, and health-related regulation