Our research

Corporate, Financial and Insolvency Law

Corporate, financial and insolvency law has been a core strength of the CBLP since its foundation in 1996. Our research examines every stage of the business life cycle: the purpose of the corporation, the legal frameworks governing companies, corporate behaviour, corporate finance and financial services, and business failure. Areas of expertise include shareholder rights and engagement, directors’ duties and accountability, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, secured transactions, insolvency and restructuring, cross-border insolvency, banking and financial law, banking regulation and resolution, sovereign debt, international financial governance (including the influence of global standard‑setting bodies and policymakers), financial crime (including money laundering and bribery), digital assets and FinTech. Our work combines legal analysis with insights from economics, governance studies, and sociology.

Centre members: Adam Baker, Virág Blazsek, Carrie Bradshaw, Andrew Campbell, Oriana Casasola, Shouyu Chong, Andrew Keay, Pedro Magalhães Batista, Gerard McCormack, Steven Montagu-Cairns, Casimiro Nigro, Clare Patton, Ci Ren, Duncan Sheehan, Anna Tzanaki, Ilaria Zavoli, and others.

Commercial, Private and International Trade Law

Our research examines the legal framework governing commercial and consumer relationships. Areas of expertise include consumer credit and over-indebtedness, contractual remedies, guarantees, financial consumer protection, and the law of obligations more broadly. Members also work on tort law, corporate liability, behavioural approaches to private law, misuse of private information, data protection, and freedom of expression. We approach these questions from both practical and theoretical perspectives, with particular attention to changing commercial practices and evolving regulatory environments.

Centre members: Subhajit Basu, Virag Blazsek, Carrie Bradshaw, Oriana Casasola, Shouyu Chong, Graham Dutfield, Rebecca Moosavian, Alex Nicholson, David Pearce, César J Ramírez-Montes, Duncan Sheehan, Igor Szpotakowski, Amaka Vanni, Paul Wragg, Qi Zhou, and others.

Our research in international trade and economic law examines the legal frameworks governing global commerce and investment. Particular strengths include World Trade Organization law, international agricultural trade regulation, international investment law, business and human rights, and sustainable development. Researchers also explore alternatives to investor-state dispute settlement and the role of international economic law in addressing contemporary global challenges.

Centre members: Shouyu Chong, Maria Anna Corvaglia, Graham Dutfield, Surya P Subedi, and others.

Technology, Governance and Intellectual Property Law

The CBLP is home to the Technology, Governance and Intellectual Property Law Group, which brings together scholars working at the intersection of law, innovation, and emerging technologies. Research spans intellectual property (IP), copyright, trade marks, geographical indications, patent law and the pharmaceutical industry and life sciences, fashion law, data protection, privacy, cybersecurity, platform regulation, unfair competition law, and the governance of disruptive technologies. Particular strengths include the law of innovation, technology regulation, IP and sustainability, IP and traditional knowledge, artificial intelligence, and the legal challenges presented by digital platforms and generative AI. The Group combines doctrinal, comparative, and interdisciplinary approaches to examine how legal systems respond to technological change.

Centre members: Graham Dutfield, Subhajit Basu, César J Ramírez-Montes, Ioanna Lapatoura, Amaka Vanni, Igor Szpotakowski, Rebecca Moosavian, Andrea Zappalaglio, Kinfe Yilma, and others.

Competition, Regulation and Tax Law

Our research examines how markets are structured, governed, and regulated. In competition (antitrust) law, we study the abuse of dominance/monopolisation (market power), anti-competitive agreements, merger control, corporate compliance, parent companies’ liability for competition law infringements, and public and private enforcement. Particular strengths include digital markets, platform regulation, blockchain technologies, smart contracts, FinTech, artificial intelligence, and comparative competition law. We also examine competition law and digital markets, and the implications of emerging regulatory frameworks.

Centre members: Pinar Akman, Anush Ganesh, Eun Hye Kim, Anna Tzanaki, Peter Whelan, and others.

In regulation, our research examines when, how, and why industries should be regulated. Drawing on regulatory theory, regulatory practice, and regulatory economics, we study the design and operation of regulatory systems across technology, legal, financial, communications, energy, infrastructure. Particular areas of expertise include press regulation, the governance of digital markets and e-commerce platforms, the regulation of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, and the accountability of professionals, regulators, and the legal profession. This area of expertise also includes environmental law and regulation and links with the newly founded Ecological Law & Justice Group (within the Centre for Law and Social Justice). We also examine the intersection of competition law and regulation in increasingly digitalised markets.

Centre members: Pinar Akman, Virag Blazsek, Subhajit Basu, Carrie Bradshaw, Joanne Hawkins, Clare James, Ioanna Lapatoura, Igor Szpotakowski, Anna Tzanaki, Paul Wragg, and others.

In tax law, our research spans national, European, and international taxation. Areas of expertise include international corporate tax reform, tax avoidance and anti-tax fraud measures, VAT, progressive taxation, global tax governance, double taxation treaties, tax incentives for research and innovation, and inheritance taxation. We also examine the interaction between taxation and employment law, as well as the role of tax policy in addressing broader economic and social challenges. Our work is informed by questions of tax fairness, tax revenue sustainability, and the challenges posed by the digitalisation and increasing technological transformation of the economy, particularly in developing countries.

Centre members: Federica Casano, Rita de la Feria, and others.