Dr Oriana Casasola

Profile

I have been an academic at the University of Leeds since October 2021. Prior to this, I was a lecturer at the University of Huddersfield and a research fellow at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany). I have a PhD from the University of Leeds and an LLM in International Economic and Business Law from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), where I also acquired a Master of Honours and a master's degree in law from the University of Udine (Italy). 

I consider myself a holistic academic. I aim to combine the knowledge creation aspect of my research with knowledge exchange efforts, both in my teaching and engagement with the practice of law. I research insolvency and restructuring law, which, broadly speaking, is the branch of law that addresses debt and financial distress. I look for solutions to problems in international and national insolvency settings, with the overall aim to contribute to the fairness and efficiency of insolvency systems. Currently, I have three streams of research that are quite different from each other, but they are all informed by curiosity and fairness. My first love is transaction avoidance claims and the discourse around their harmonisation. I have also been curious about how farmers in financial distress fare within insolvency and restructuring systems. Most recently,  I have been investigating the money laundering risks and implementation challenges within the English insolvency system.    

Responsibilities

• Programme Manager for the LLM in International Corporate Law
• Programme Manager for the LLM in International Trade Law

Research interests

My primary research interests revolve around insolvency and restructuring law, with three research streams examining international, national, and sectorial challenges.  

From an international and comparative perspective, I research transaction avoidance provisions (a.k.a. actio pauliana). These are claims that permit the restoration of the insolvency order and value by invalidating acts of insolvent debtors. They are available in almost any insolvency system. (Interestingly, one of my postgraduates reports that they are not available in Cambodia).   

My PhD dissertation, supervised by Prof Gerry McCormack and Dr Zinian Zhang, was in the area of avoidance actions as well as the following publications 

• The Transaction Avoidance Regime in the Recast European Insolvency Regulation: Limits and Prospects. 2019 28(1) International Insolvency Review 1 

•  The Harmonization of Transaction Avoidance: A Compromise Solution (2020) 29 (5)  Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice

• The Harmonization of Transaction Avoidance in the EU (Edward Elgar 2023) 

• The International Complexities of Section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986 in the Sequana Case, co-authored with Prof Gerry McCormack and forthcoming in the OUP collection Creditors and Directors: Law and Liability, edited by John Wood, Sophia Ellina and John Tribe.  

The contribution to the Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice won the silver medal of the 2020 Prize in International Insolvency Studies awarded for original legal research, commentary or analysis on topics of international insolvency and restructuring significance and on comparative international analysis of domestic insolvency and restructuring issues and developments.  

The practical impact of my research on avoidance actions is the most discernible in my involvement  in the preparatory works for the European Commission Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council harmonising certain aspects of insolvency law: 

• Study on the issue of abusive forum shopping in insolvency proceedings   
• Study on tracing and recovery of debtor’s assets by insolvency practitioners   

Still in the field of international insolvency, I have worked under the supervision of Prof. Stephan Madaus and the lead of Prof Daniele Vattermoli on the project “Transnational Protocols: A Cooperative Tool For Managing Cross-Border Insolvency”, funded by the European Justice Programme (Call: JUST-AG- 2017)” – Proposal Number SEP-210469720. The project resulted in the design of a European Model Protocol to facilitate cooperation among European insolvency practitioners and courts. The  European Model Protocol is available here .

The second stream of my research focuses on substantial insolvency law but with a specific sector in mind: agriculture.  In this field, I look at whether insolvency and restructuring regimes work for farmers or against them and the sustainability implications of farmers' financial distress.

On the topic, I have written the following contributions: 

• The Italian Exclusion of Farming Enterprises from Major Insolvency Proceedings: An Assessment of its Appropriateness within the European Union Insolvency Context, Co-authored with Dr Elisa Salvadori and forthcoming in International Insolvency Review 2025. 

• Addressing Farmers Financial Distress in England, forthcoming in the Journal of International and Comparative Law 2025.  

• Towards a More Sustainable EU Insolvency and Restructuring Law: The Missing Piece of Farming Holdings, in the forthcoming Edward Elgard Research Handbook on Sustainable Insolvency System, edited by Jennifer Gant and Paul Omar  

The research underpinning the article 'Addressing Farmers Financial Distress in England' has been supported by the  Micheal Beverley Innovation Fellowship, which has been an opportunity for great personal and professional development under the coaching of Paul Slater and Katie McDermott.  Some of the findings of my fellowship research have also been discussed in a webinar hosted by the Global Food and Environment Institute: What are the needs of farmers in financial distress within the UK insolvency regime?  

Finally, my third research stream investigates the interplay of money laundering and the insolvency and restructuring system. Here, in collaboration with Dr Ilaria Zavoli, I investigate: 

•  The money laundering risks inherent to the insolvency and restructuring systems

• The compliance challenges experienced by practitioners  

• The anti-money laundering governance structure within the English insolvency and restructuring system.

This stream of research is in its early stages, and it does not have any published outputs yet. However, together with Dr Ilaria Zavoli, I have been awarded an ESRC IAA grant  that is funding a conference and setting up a network of experts in collaboration with the Insolvency Practitioners Association. Watch this space.  

• Behind Closed Books: Money Laundering in UK Insolvency Proceedings

Qualifications

• FHEA
• PhD
• LLM
• Master Degree in Law
• Master of Honours

Professional memberships

• YANIL - Young Academic Network of Insolvency Law
• International Insolvency Institute - NextGen Program
• Insol Europe
• Agricultural Law Association

Student education

The insights gained from my research endeavours significantly influence my teaching role as the module leader for international corporate insolvency law. 

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Business Law and Practice
• Centre for Innovation and Research in Legal Education

Current postgraduate researchers

• Matthew Chippin