Dr Emilie Ghio

Dr Emilie Ghio is a Lecturer in Corporate & Insolvency Law at Edinburgh Law School, where she directs the Subject Area of Commercial Law and coordinates the Edinburgh Teaching Award. Her research explores the legal, institutional and cultural foundations of corporate rescue, spanning commercial, company and insolvency law. She is recognised for her expertise in the harmonisation of insolvency law (particularly in the EU context) and examines how cross-border coordination, legal convergence and policy design can improve access to rescue for struggling businesses. Her work links high-level harmonisation efforts with the lived realities of small and medium-sized enterprises and their directors, highlighting gaps between legal frameworks and practical uptake.

Her research interests encompass the harmonisation of insolvency law at EU and international levels; corporate rescue and restructuring; MSME failure and the adequacy of legal and policy responses; behavioural and institutional barriers to legal efficacy; and directors’ legal literacy and crisis decision-making. Her comparative research engages with jurisdictions across different legal systems and draws on interdisciplinary methods grounded in management theory, psychology and socio-legal scholarship. Emilie has an expansive domestic and international research portfolio and is actively engaged with policymakers, practitioners and organisations working to strengthen rescue culture. She is a member of the INSOL Europe Academic Forum Board and participates regularly in advisory work and knowledge-exchange initiatives in the UK and beyond.

She holds a PhD in European insolvency law and an LLM in Business Law from University College Cork (Ireland), as well as an LLB from the University of Strasbourg (France). Emilie joined Edinburgh Law School in 2023, having previously held academic posts at Edinburgh Napier University and Birmingham City University. She teaches corporate and insolvency law across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, with particular expertise in UK and international corporate law, and welcomes supervision enquiries from prospective LLM and PhD students in these areas.

Emilie has recently published 'Redefining Harmonisation: Lessons from EU Insolvency Law' (Edward Elgar, 2022), 'English Corporate Insolvency Law: A Primer' (Edward Elgar, 2022), 'Re-examining Insolvency Law and Theory: Perspectives for the 21st Century' (Edward Elgar, 2023), and 'Are Legal Systems Converging? Lessons from Contemporary Crisis' (Springer, 2024). She is currently working on several internally and externally funded research projects and writing or editing forthcoming books.