Our research

Corporate and Financial Law

This has been an area of traditional strength for the centre. Our corporate law research covers most areas of company law with particular interest in:

• corporate governance
  • objectives of public companies
  • directors’ duties
  • director accountability
  • shareholder rights, remedies and litigation
  • shareholder engagement
  • corporate social and environmental responsibility
  • governance and the corporate sector of the legal profession)
• corporate insolvency
  • comparative approaches to corporate rescue
  • liquidation; administration
  • transactional avoidance
  • forum shopping
  • jurisdictional competition in the context of international insolvency proceedings

The financial law strand of this research area focuses on banking and financial law, specifically:

• bank insolvencies
• money laundering
• bribery and financial crime theory
• analysis of secured credit regimes
• the role of the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and other supra-governmental and international finance organisations in promoting notions of globalised finance law

Centre members in this area: Adam Baker, Virag Blazsek, Carrie Bradshaw, , Andrew Campbell, Trevor Clark,  Andrew Keay,  Colin Mackie, Pedro Magalhães Batista, Gerard McCormack, Steven Montagu-Cairns, Karina Patricio Ferreira Lima, Duncan Sheehan, Ilaria Zavoli

Contract, Consumer and Commercial Law

In contract and consumer law, we concentrate on:

• consumer credit and over-indebtedness
• analysis of the law of guarantees from efficiency and re-distributional perspectives
• practical and theoretical approaches to remedies for breach of contract
• norms of consumer protection in the realm of financial contracting with consideration of national and European approaches

Our expertise also includes issues of:

• monetary remedies for tortious wrongdoing
• behavioural decision theory and private law theory
• misuse of private information and data protection
• tort
• press regulation and freedom

Another area of research activity is intellectual property law, especially in the context of the pharmaceutical industry and the life sciences; emerging technologies; and trademarks and geographical indications.

Centre members in this area: Subhajit Basu, Virag Blazsek, Oriana Casasola, Graham Dutfield, Rebecca Moosavian, Alex Nicholson, Karina Patricio Ferreira Lima, David Pearce, César J Ramírez-Montes, Duncan Sheehan, Amaka Vanni , Paul Wragg, Qi Zhou.

Competition Law

Our competition research covers most areas of competition (antitrust) law. Our interests and expertise cover:

• abuse of dominance/monopolisation (market power)
• anticompetitive agreements, including online vertical restraints
• public and private enforcement of competition law, including criminalisation (the imprisonment of executives for cartel activity)
• parental liability for competition law infringements, etc.

We have a growing interest and expertise in the challenges of technology markets for competition law, including blockchain technology, smart contracts, networks, and online platforms.

Centre members in this area: Pinar Akman, Or Brook,  Peter Whelan

Regulation

Our regulation research expertise includes regulatory theory, regulatory practice, and regulatory economics. Our researchers investigate when, how and why we should regulate industries, with sector-specific expertise in the information, communications, technology (ICT), and energy markets. This area of expertise includes specifically:

• environmental law and regulation of UK shale gas and hydraulic fracturing (fracking)
• polluter-pays principle and corporate environmental liability
• regulation of the food supply chain
• press regulation
• regulation of online markets including e-commerce and platforms
• regulation of emerging technologies, specifically the regulation of information communications technologies and Artificial Intelligence
• the regulation and accountability of professionals and regulators, and those in the legal profession

Centre members in this area: Pinar Akman, Carrie Bradshaw, Subhajit Basu, Trevor Clark, Joanne Hawkins, Colin Mackie, Paul Wragg

Tax Law

Our tax expertise covers most aspects of taxation from income taxes to VAT at international, European, and national levels. Current projects include:

• international corporate tax reform
• anti-tax avoidance rules
• political economy of taxation
• progressive taxation and VAT
• anti-tax fraud policy
• tax incentives for R&D
• double taxation treaties
• the tax implications of employment law

Our research is informed by concerns over tax fairness, the challenges posed by the digitalisation and robotisation of the economy, and tax revenue sustainability, primarily in the context of developing countries.

Centre members in this area: Rita de la Feria, Leopoldo Parada

International Trade Law

Our international trade law research covers international economic law, particularly international trade law under the World Trade Organization (WTO) with a particular interest in international agricultural trade regulation. This strand of research also investigates:

• alternatives to investor-State arbitration
  • business and human rights
  • sustainable development in investment treaties and investment contracts.

Centre members in this area: Maria Anna Corvaglia, Graham Dutfield, Fiona Smith, Surya P Subedi