Research

The members of the Edinburgh Centre for Commercial Law conduct research in various fields of commercial law including company law, banking law, labour law, agency law, and consumer protection law. In all these cases we study Scots and UK commercial law in its comparative European or international context.

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Gillian Black

Personality rights in the UK, in particular the commercial practice of licensing personality rights to third parties and the legal basis for this practice.

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David Cabrelli

The law of the contract of employment, in particular the growth in differing behavioural standards and expectations which the common law and the legislature imposes upon employers and the lack of a principle against the disapplication of common law and statutory based employment rights in the context of the common law of the contract of employment.

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George L Gretton

Property law; trust law; succession law; comparative private law; history of private law; law of secured transactions; insolvency law; law of sale of goods; law of negotiable instruments; law of assignment. Current projects include a book on the new law of land registration.

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Jonathan Hardman

The floating charge under Scots law and its theoretical foundations.

The atomisation of company law. Recent theoretical approaches to corporate law has emphasised a unity in corporate law theory. But is this always the case? Can corporate law be viewed in a different way? What is the effect of separating its various parts?

Beyond Bell: The Development of Modern Commercial Law in Scotland. This project, which is coordinated with Dr A MacPherson and Dr A Wilson, both of the University of Aberdeen, aims to trace the development of commercial law in Scotland from the time of institutional writer G J Bell. This project covers meta themes and concepts, economic development, and studies in almost every area of Scottish commercial law.

He is working on a Scottish Universities Law Institute volume of Cautionary Obligations (or the Scots law of guarantees).

Empirical Company law. This project, which is being undertaken partially with data-scientist Dr N Rowell, aims to explore quantitative empirical data as to UK companies, primarily from the company law database. It has so far explored articles of association of private companies (coded on a leximetric basis), and the next output focuses on the interconnectedness of independent directors.

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Parker Hood

Banking law, in particular lender liability.

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Simone Lamont-Black

Her main research interest is in international transport law, whether carriage (of goods or persons) is performed by sea, road, rail or air, or a combination thereof and in the law relating to freight forwarding.

Between 2018-19 Dr Lamont-Black was working on the RSE funded research project entitled “Ring-fencing Passenger Rights after Brexit?” comparing the rights of passengers as provided in the EU with those that may be available in Australia and Singapore.

Policy paper: "Ring-fencing EU Passenger Rights in the UK - impact of a hard Brexit (PDF)

In 2014-15 she focused on the Carnegie Trust funded research project “Freight Forwarders beware - liability traps and gaps in the international playing field”.

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Longjie Lou

Longjie’s research interests are in the areas of banking and financial regulation, company law, corporate governance, corporate finance and empirical legal studies. She is working on a book comparing the regulations of bankers’ remuneration and incentives in the UK and China, which is based on her doctoral thesis.

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Laura Macgregor

(1) New book on agency for the Scottish Universities Law Institute, published by W Green. (2) Collaborating with Prof. Hector MacQueen and Prof. Martin Hogg in order to produce a new volume on obligations for the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia.

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Lorna Richardson

Lorna's interests are predominantly in the field of contract law. She has recently written a book on aspects of the law of leases, "Dilapidations and Service Charge". She is also co-editing a European project on third party rights in contract. The output of this project is a book to be published by Intersentia.

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Scott Wortley

Commercial and property law and related topics such as debt enforcement (including diligence and rights in security).

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2019 - 20

Emilios Avgouleas

12 June 2020: Does the global pandemic signal a paradigm shift in law and the economy?
Co-organised by Professor Emilios Avgouleas (Edinburgh) and Professor Iain MacNeil (Glasgow), the event brought together leading economists, eminent jurists, and public speakers to  discuss the paradigm shifts in the law and economy post-Covid-19. View event

28 January 2020: 'The Idea of Money in the 4th Industrial Revolution and the Perception of Value,' presented at the Edinburgh Futures Institute's Fintech, Values and Society Seminar Series.
View event

David Cabrelli

30 October 2019: 'An Introduction to Dismissal Law in the UK' presented at Japan symposium 'Analysing the System of Modification and Termination of Labour Contracts and Dispute Resolution in the UK and France: A Comparison with Japan' 

31 October 2019: 'Unfair Dismissal Law in the UK' at the Japanese Government’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare 

24 October 2019: 'The Limits of Agency Theory' with Dr. Ewa Kruszewska at Conference on “Agency Theory in the 21st Century” at Maastricht University. View event 

24 September 2019: 'Health and Safety in the Workplace of the Future' at EU Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee View event 

25 - 27 April 2019: 'Liability for the Violation of Human Rights and Labour Standards in Global Supply Chains: A Common Law Perspective' at the 18th Annual Conference of the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law, Vienna, Austria

Jonathan Hardman

21 January 2020: ‘The Scots law perspective” at “Understanding Assignments: English, comparative and private international law”, Invited Speaker at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London.

28 November 2019: ‘Hiding perniciousness in plain sight: Conflation in nineteenth century company law and today’, Ius Commune Conference, University of Leuven.

30 August 2019: ‘The Requirements of Writing of Cautionary Obligations’, Invited Speaker at the Scottish Universities Law Institute Annual Conference, Dundee.

Simone Lamont-Black

11th October 2019: ‘A comparative overview of the concept of the freight forwarder’ presented at the 50th Anniversary and Knowledge Exchange conference of IDIT (Institut du Droit International des Transports = the Institute for International Transport Law) in Rouen, France on the topic of “Innovation et mobilités : où va le droit ? (Innovation and Mobility: Where is the Law going?)”

2018 - 19

Simone Lamont-Black

5 June 2019: ‘EU Passenger Rights after Brexit – where do we go from here?’ Public Lecture based on Research Findings for Royal Society of Edinburgh Funded Research Project, delivered at Edinburgh Law School, Edinburgh

24 October 2018: ‘Freight Forwarders House Bills of Lading: Myth, Facts and Hope’, delivered at Research Centre Series of the Centre for Maritime Law, National University of Singapore, Singapore

16 October 2018: ‘Pitfalls in Freight Forwarding: The Contractual Framework, Multimodality and Mandatory Laws’, Short Course delivered for the Centre of Maritime Law, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, at Maxwell Chambers, Singapore More info

4 July 2018: ‘Implementing Athens in the EU’ presented at Global Shipping Law Forum 2018 - Carriage of Passengers by Sea: Legal Issues, organised by the Marine and Shipping Law Unit, TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

2017 - 18

Emilios Avgouleas

Keynote addresses

4 June 2018: "The Transformation of Securities and Derivatives Markets Under Blockchain Technology: Challenges for Financial Exchange Organisation and Governance", in “Commercial Law in Times of Change”, Durham Law School

11 January 2018: "Is Liberalism Dead? Long-live Liberalism and the corrosive effect of neoliberal elites and short-termist markets", Public Lecture, Athens Concert Hall, Cycle: Theory, Philosophy, History

24 May 2018: “Public Panel on Systemic Risk in the Financial Sector: Ten Years after the Global Financial Crisis”, Toronto Stock Exchange

27 October 2017: "Belt and Road: A Vision for Long-Term Finance and Global Economic Governance", Belt and Road Center, Department of Politics and International Relations and Department of Economics. Tsinghua University (chaired by Faculty Dean and Tsinghua political leader, Professor Shi Zhiqin, Executive Dean of the One Belt-One Road Strategy Institute). 

28 October 2017: "Financial Innovation and a vision for the Future", invited keynote address to the 17th Peoples’ Republic of China (“PRC”) Commercial Law Forum, "Financing Innovation", Tsinghua Law School, Beijing

Other presentations

22 March 2018: "Blockchain and market trading & clearing: the end of speculation as we know it?" in The Transformation of Finance and Investment: Information and Technology Revolutions, University College London, London

3 May 2018: "Securities and Derivatives Trading and Clearing in the Era of blockchain: A glass Half-full!" invited guest seminar at Asian Institute for International Financial Law, Faculty of Law, Hong Kong University

17 - 18 April 2018: “Eurozone’s Structural Weaknesses in Dealing with Sovereign Debt and NPLs and some Remedies” in 27th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, “Stability in a World of Rising Rates and the Repeal of Dodd-Frank”, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

10 April 2018: "The future of Eurozone architecture on banking and sovereign debt crisis management", School of European Political Economy, LUISS, Rome

6 July 2017: An AMC structure to Resolve Europe's legacy Bank Debts" in Bruegel workshop: Is there a Way out of Non-performing loans in Europe”, Bruegel, Brussels, Discussant Professor Martin Hellwig (Max Plankt Institute).

David Cabrelli

5 March 2018: Lecture on “Pay and Working Time” for Manchester University Law School, Labour Law class

26 January 2018: Lecture at Aberdeen University Law School on “The Role of Standards of Review in Labour Law”

25 October 2017: Lecture for Industrial Law Society on “The ‘Worker’ Contact: Filling the Void Post-Taylor”

25 - 17 June 2017: (With R Zahn), “Non-domination in civic republican political theory and the role of the contract of employment”, at the LLRN3 Conference in Toronto, Canada, 25th-27th June, 2017

13 - 14 July 2017: “Restrictive Covenants in UK Law: Legitimate Interests and Proportionality” at the Labour Law2030: The Future of Work Conference in Porto, Portugal

Simone Lamont Black

11 June 2018: “Travelling to Europe? – The regulation of EU Passenger Rights”, Law Café Series at Murdoch University, School of Law, Perth, Western Australia

15 November 2017: “EU Air Passenger Rights as applied in Scotland”, presented at Vienna University School of Law, Vienna, Austria

13 October 2017: “Scots Courts on Budget Airline Practices: Jurisdiction, Care and Compensation”, presented at the 2nd INTRANSLAW conference (2nd International Conference on Transport and Insurance Law), Zagreb

Laura Macgregor

12 June 2018: Commentator on David Cabrelli’s Paper, ‘The Mutuality of Obligation Doctrine in Employment Law: Time for a Rethink’, Edinburgh Law School New Research Colloquium

29 September 2017: Invited Paper: “Limited Liability Partnerships: the Problem of Fiduciary Duties” at Workshop on Fiduciary Law, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Remus Valsan

15 May 2018: Guest speaker at Fudan Law School, Shanghai, China, where I gave a talk on "The UK Model of Corporate Governance"

15 - 16 April 2018: Presented paper as an invited speaker on “Fiduciary Duties and the Psychology of Conflicts of Interest, at the "Global Perspectives on Fiduciary Law" workshop.  This was an international workshop organised by IDC Herzliya and Radzyner Law School, Israel

Ruiqiao Zhang

26 - 28 December 2017: “The New Role Trusts Play in Modern Financial Markets” (Paper delivered at the International Conference on Social Science, Arts, Economic and Education, Dubai

2016 - 17

Emilios Avgouleas

Keynotes and notable lectures & presentations

8 June 2017: “’Bad’, ‘Mad’, ‘Rotten’, But Can the EMU Be fixed?” To the Greek Parliament Special Session – the European Parliament committee on Economic and monetary Affairs “Workshop on the Future of Europe”, Brussels & Athens

19 January 2017: “From speculative to sustainable finance - can markets do good?” University of Cambridge, Capitalism on Edge Lecture Series

5 October 2016: “The Unexpected Financial Stability Consequences of Extra-Ordinary Monetary Measures and Quantitative Easing”, CEO panel, European Asset Management CEO Summit, the European Institute and the Institutional Investor Magazine, Cap Ferrat, France

26 September 2016: “Converting Debt to Equity as a Means to Address TBTF” The Fourth Symposium on Ending Too Big to Fail, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, USA

6 September 2016: “Central Banks, Financial Stability and Legal Liability – The Central Banking Contract” keynote address to the Banking and Financial Law Section (invited), Annual Conference of the Society of Legal Scholars, Oxford University,

11 August 2016: “The Many Facets of the Too-Big-to-Fail (TBTFS) Institution and the Challenge of Regulating TBTFs” Monetary Authority of Singapore (Central Bank, prudential and Capital Markets regulator of Singapore), General Counsel, Financial Stability, and Supervision Divisions

2 - 4 June 2016: “Monetary Policy, Financial Stability and the 'Holly' Grail of International Monetary Coordination - An Incomplete Framework or Chimaera?", keynote address to the Chinese University of Hong Kong conference: "The Political Economy of Financial Regulation", HK

Academic Presentations

6 May 2017: “The Central Bank as a Lender of Last Resort – A 21st Century Restatement”, Public lecture, School of Law, University of Manchester

23 February 2017: “The Optimum Allocative and Distributive Role of Financial Regulation and the Disruptive Force of Innovation” in the International conference, Toward a Progressive Politics of Financial Regulation, Allard Law School, university of British Columbia, Vancouver

26 - 28 January 2017: “The new role of ESMA as a capital markets regulator in the  European Capital Markets Union” in International conference on the European Capital Markets Union, Clifford Chance Amsterdam

23 August 2016: “The role of financial innovation for an effective Capital Markets Union” in “The Vexed Question of Effective Bank Resolution and the Challenge Posed by Bail-in Regimes”, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

Laura MacGregor

10 March 2017: ‘Good faith and fiduciary duties in Scottish partnerships’, Workshop on Obligations Law, Brasenose College, Oxford, discussant, Prof Joshua Getzler, University of Oxford.

2 November 2016: ‘Good faith and fiduciary duties in Scottish partnerships’, seminar for Edinburgh Centre for Private Law (with Prof Danny Busch, University of Nijmegen)

David Cabrelli

3 May 2017: ‘Implied Terms in Law in Personal Work Contracts’, seminar at De Montfort University Law School Seminar Series

1 May 2017: ‘Implied Terms in Law in Personal Work Contracts’, staff seminar at Edinburgh University Law School Seminar Series

28 March 2017: ‘UK Legal Report on D&O Liability’ at D&O Liability Conference, Vienna, Vienna University of Economics & Business

6 April 2017: ‘The Role of Standards of Review in Labour Law’, seminar at Edinburgh University Law School Legal Theory Reading Group

10 March 2017: ‘Implied Terms in Law in Personal Work Contracts’, seminar at Workshop on Obligations Law, Keble College, Oxford, discussant, Prof Hugh Collins, University of Oxford

17 February 2017: ‘Future Research Work to Come’ from The Contract of Employment (Oxford, OUP, 2016) at the book launch of The Contract of Employment at Brasenose College, Oxford University

19 January 2017: ‘Brexit Breakfast Seminar on Brexit and Human Rights’ with Tobias Lock at the Scottish Parliament for MSPs and Scottish Parliament Researchers

21 October 2016: ‘Theories of Domination and Labour Law: Domination as an Alternative Conception for Intervention?’ at Strathclyde University Workshop in Glasgow

16 - 17 June 2016: ‘Civic Republican Political Theory and Labour Law’ at ‘Philosophical Foundations of Labour Law’ Conference at University College, London

Parker Hood

26 January 2017: Invited discussant of Panel 5 in the Clifford chance (AMS), University of Nijmegen, university of Edinburgh international conference “Capital Markets Union in Europe” co-organised by Profs Avgouleas, Busch, Ferrarini, Amsterdam.

Simone Lamont-Black

10 March 2017: ‘Multi-Tier Clauses – Enforcement under English Law’ presented at International Multi-Tier Dispute Resolution in Practice Conference, Edinburgh Law School

12 - 13 October 2016: ‘Damages for fear of Damages’ to be presented at the conference "Law and logistics: the way forward" by the Antwerp Forwarding Association, Forwarder, Law and Flows (Belgian Logistics Association: Brengt Logistiek Vlaanderen in Beweging)

6 - 7 October 2016: ‘The Concept of the Successive Carrier on trial’ presented at the International Conference “60 Years CMR” of the Erasmus Academie, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

15 September 2016: ‘Maritime Liens’, 9th ECMLR (European Colloquium on Maritime Law Research), in Bilbao, Spain

May 2016: ‘The UK Supreme court on Jurisdiction over successive CMR carriers and European Union Rules’, presented at the Symposium on the 60th anniversary of the CMR Convention “the Application of the CMR Convention by contracting States: what are the differences?”, Rouen, IDIT (Institut du Droit de Transports et de la Logistique) and University of Rouen, Rouen, France

Remus Valsan

16 December 2016: “Fiduciary Duties and Incomplete Contracts” at the 12th Annual Conference of the Italian Society of Law & Economics (SIDE-ISLE), Turin, Italy

2015 - 16

Laura Macgregor

24th May, 2016: “Implied Terms: Clarity at Last?”, Invited Speaker, Law Society of Scotland Contract Law

31st March, 2016: “Challenges to Agency Law: Scotland and Louisiana Compared”, Invited speaker, Loyola University, New Orleans

17th March, 2016: “United in a kind of brotherhood: fiduciary duties in partnerships”, Keynote speaker, Terra Firma Chambers Commercial Law Conference, Parliament House, Edinburgh

26th February, 2016: “The Imputation of Knowledge from Agent to Principal in the Pre-contractual Phase of Business Insurance”, Plenary speaker, Book Launch Conference, Brasenose College, University of Oxford

30th October, 2015: “‘Strange new beasts in the forest’:  innovations, legal practice and commercial law”, Invited speaker, Innovation, Law and Development Conference, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

6th July, 2015: “Interpretation of Commercial Contracts: The Rise and Fall of Business Common Sense”, Keynote Speaker, Commercial Court Conference, Parliament House, Edinburgh

Emilios Avgouleas

Keynote Addresses

2nd-4th June, 2016: Closing Keynote Address: Monetary Policy, Financial Stability, and International Co-ordination: The Missing Part of Global Governance Jigsaw?, Conference on the Political Economy of Financial Regulation, Organized to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Chinese University of Hong Kong More info

30th May, 2016: “A Securities Regulator for Europe: An Assessment of ESMA’s Present Status and its Future Role in a European Capital Markets Union”, Italian Capital Markets Commission and Bocconi University, Convegno Consob-Bocconi "il sistema di vigilanza europeo: prospettive e problemi del ruolo dell'Esma". More info

4th-5th June, 2015: “Regulating Financial Innovation: A Multifaceted Challenge for Contemporary Economic and Regulatory Policy”, “Financial product governance in post-financial crisis Europe” Conference organized by the School of Law, European University Institute, Florence

Invited Public Lectures

6th June, 2016: Faculty Lecture, Reconceptualizing Bank Supervision and the Lender of Last Resort in the 21st Century”, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Ko Guan Law School More info

16th November, 2015: “From Speculative to Sustainable Finance – Can Markets Do Good?”, Part of University of Edinburgh’s prestigious “Our Changing World” Lecture Series delivered by leading academics across the University selected by the Organizers and the Principal

Invited Conference Papers

12th-13th April, 2016, "Monetary Policy, Financial Stability and Leverage Regulation", 25th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference: "Will the Global Economic Environment Constrain US Growth and Employment?", Levy Economics Institute of Bard College with support from the Ford Foundation, New York.

17th-18th March, 2016: "The Many Faces and Unspoken Rationales of the new EU Market Abuse Regime" in European Law Academy conference: "Best Practices in Financial Supervision to Combat Market Abuse", Trier, Also chair of "Chairman's Panel of Experts" 

29th January, 2016: “Product Governance under MiFID II” (Second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive), Conference on MiFID II, International Working Party on MiFID II, Amsterdam  

14th January, 2016: "ECB's New Powers - Accountability and Governance", in the European Parliament Workshop: "The ECB - Europe’s unelected government", European Parliament, Brussels.

11th-12th December, 2015: “Distinguishing between Bank Illiquidity and Bank Insolvency" closing talk to the conference: "Finance Between Liquidity and Insolvency", House of Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt Cosponsors: SAFE, Stiftung Geld und Währung & MPG/Humboldt Foundation, Frankfurt.

9th September, 2015: “Leverage, Risk Weights, and Fractional Reserve Banking: Why Innovation Rather than Reform is the Answer to the Big Bank Conundrum”, Law and Money, 2nd Annual Conference: “Bank Regulation, Financial Stability & Monetary Law”, University of Sheffield, closing panel with Anat Admati.

2nd-3rd September, 2015: “Access to Finance as a pre-condition of Liberal Democracy”, “Democracy and the Financial Legal Order” Conference, Max Planck Institute (Heidelberg), Frankfurt, sponsored by the Deutsche Bundesbank.

David Cabrelli

20th June 2016: “Implied Terms: Time for a Re-think?”, Speaker, CLT Scotland, Contract Law at Scots Law Conference, Glasgow Hilton, Glasgow

17th June, 2016: “Civic Republican Political Theory and Labour Law”, Invited Plenary Speaker, Conference on ‘the Philosophical Foundations of Labour Law’, UCL, University of London

27th April, 2016: “The Brexit Effect on Labour Law: Plus ca Change?”, University of Leicester Law School Conference on “’Brexit’ and its Potential Implications for the UK”. Read the blog “Brexit and Labour Law: A Bonfire of Red Tape?”, Invited speaker, University of Leicester

26th February, 2016, Invited discussant on presentation by Professor Danny Busch on “Agency and Principal Dealing under the MiFID”, Book Launch Conference: Agency Law in Commercial Practice, D Busch, L Macgregor and P Watts (eds.) (Oxford, OUP, 2016), Brasenose College, University of Oxford

14th January, 2016: “An Analysis of the Community Interest Company in UK Law”, Invited Speaker, Conference by the Social Enterprise Network Netherlands on Alternative Corporate Forms for Social Enterprises, The Hague, the Netherlands

25th June, 2015: “The Relevance of Political Theories of Domination to Labour Law, Invited speaker and delivered with Dr Rebecca Zahn, University of Strathclyde, Labour Law Research Network Conference, 24th-27th June, 2015, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

27th October, 2015, “Latest Developments in the law of Implied Terms”, Speaker, CLT Scotland, Contract Law at Scots Law Conference, Glasgow Hilton, Glasgow

9th-11th November, 2015: Series of Lectures on the “Personal Scope of European Labour Laws”, Invited Speaker, Pavia, Italy

Parker Hood

29th January, 2016: “Product Governance under MiFID II” (Second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive), Conference on MiFID II, International Working Party on MiFID II, Amsterdam  

Simone Lamont Black

19th-20th May, 2016: “The UK Supreme Court on Jurisdiction over Successive CMR Carriers and European Union Rules”, Symposium on the 60th anniversary of the CMR Convention: “The Application of the CMR Convention by contracting States: what are the differences?”, Rouen, IDIT (Institut du Droit de Transports et de la Logistique) and University of Rouen, Rouen, France

4th December, 2015, “The EU Passenger Rights Regulation and air passenger rights in case of ‘missed flights’”, Belgian Association for Maritime Law, Antwerp, Belgium

12th-13th November, 2015: “Klagehäufung und internationale Zuständigkeit im Falle aufeinanderfolgender Frachtführer - the British way in BAT v Exel”, Annual Conference on Transport Law of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Transportrecht (German Association for Transport Law), Dresden, Germany

15th-16th October, 2015: “Jurisdiction against successive carriers under European Union Rules”, INTRANSLAW Zagreb 2015, 1st International Conference on Transport and Insurance Law, Zagreb, Croatia

4th-5th September, 2015: “Contribution Claims between Carriers - another obstacle to intermodality?”, “Current Issues in Freight Forwarding: Law and Logistics” Conference, Edinburgh

Remus Valsan

18th December 2015, “Fiduciary Conflicts of Interest and the Agency Problem”, 11th Annual Conference of the Italian Society of Law & Economics (SIDE-ISLE), Naples, Italy

3th December 2015, “Transactional Lawyers Gatekeepers or Secret Keepers?”, 3rd Conference of the Association of Law Professors of Les Grandes Ecoles/Business Schools (APDGE), Toulouse, France

19th September, 2015: “Fiduciary Duties and Conflicts of Interest: An Inter-Disciplinary Approach”, 32nd Annual Conference of the European Association of Law and Economics (EALE), Vienna, Austria

2014 - 15

Laura Macgregor

1st June, 2015: “Interpretation as a Limit to Contractual Autonomy”. This paper was delivered as part of a workshop, Current Issues in Legal Interpretation, staged jointly by the Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group and the Edinburgh Centre for Private Law.

15th April, 2015: “The Modern Law of Partnership: A Work In Progress?” Paper presented at the 19th Commonwealth Law Conference, Glasgow, at the invitation of the Lord President, Lord Gill.

12th November, 2014: “Agency Law: A Victim of Its Own Success”. This was Professor Macgregor’s inaugural lecture as Visiting Professor in International Commercial Law, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

11th November, 2014: “Imputation of Knowledge from Agent to Principal in the Pre-Contractual Phase of Insurance”.  This paper was delivered at a two-day conference, organised by Professor Macgregor, at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands where Professor Macgregor is a Visiting Professor in International Commercial Law.

15th October, 2014: “The Role of Trust in the Law”. This paper was delivered as part of one of the Staff Seminars, Edinburgh Law School.

24th September, 2014: “Agents and Bribes”. This paper was delivered as part of the Edinburgh Centre for Private Law’s “Work Not Yet in Progress” Series.

Emilios Avgouleas

Keynote Addresses

4th – 5th June, 2015: “Regulating Financial Innovation: A Multifaceted Challenge for Contemporary Economic and Regulatory Policy” (Framing Lecture) in the conference “Financial product governance in post-financial crisis Europe”, School of Law, EUI, Florence (Framing Lecture).

22nd May, 2015: “Towards a Global Financial Law”.  Annual Van Ryn Lecture, in Brussels Global Law Week, organized by The Perelman Centre of Legal Philosophy, HEC Paris, and the Centre Emile Bernheim of the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management.

27th March 2015: “The Role of the European Central Bank as a Monetary Authority, Bank Supervisor and Lender of Last Resort”.  Forbes Annual Banking and Insurance Forum, 26-27 March 2014, Athens

27th February, 2015: “Potential Systemic Risks in Asian Banking Sectors”. Delivered at “The Future of Banking and Financial Services Regulation & Implications for Asia” Singapore Management University, School of Law.

11th-13th November, 2014: “Financing long-term Growth and International Financial Centres: What Role for Institutions?” Shanghai Jiao Tong University, National University of Singapore, Hong Kong University conference: “Asian Financial Centres’, Development and Regulation-- Comparative Study from Singapore, Hong Kong and Mainland China”, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Research Seminars

3rd October, 2014: “Introduction to the Banking Union”. Presentation to the Scottish Government economists, as a prelude to a paper presented by Ph D student, Chia-hsing Li (Gary), on “Distribution of Responsibility for the Supervision of Financial Institutions' Conduct in the EU”, to the Scottish Government Economists.

20th October, 2014: “Do Fractional Reserve Banks Have Any Future in Light of Recent Reforms?”MBA Seminar, Athens University of Economics and Business

17th November, 2014: “From Speculative to Sustainable Finance”. Our Changing World Lecture, University of Edinburgh.

11th February, 2015: “Bank Resolution”. Seminar presenter (with Professor Charles Goodhart), Bank of England, Financial Stability Directorate & Bank Resolution Policy Unit. Seminar organized by the Director of Systemic Risk Supervision at the Bank of England.

27th February, 2015: “Potential Systemic Risks in Asian Banking Sectors” (Keynote Address), delivered at “The Future of Banking and Financial Services Regulation & Implications for Asia” Singapore Management University, School of Law.

28th April, 2015: “The Future of Fractional Reserve Banking: Is Jimmy Stewart Dead?”, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge. Discussant: Professor Eilis Ferran, Dean, Cambridge Faculty of Law

12th May, 2015: “What Future for Global Banking in Light of Recent Reforms?” Manchester Public International Law Centre, University of Manchester.

Select Conference Presentations and Knowledge Exchange

3rd-4th July, 2014: “Bank Capital, Leverage Ratios, and Financial Stability”. Conference on European Banking Regulation of the Centre for Advanced Studies of the Ludwig Maximilians Universitat Munchen.

9th July, 2014: “How to Promote Transatlantic Regulatory Convergence”. EU-US Financial Regulation Dialogue, Brussels, QED, Brussels.

12th September, 2014: “Governance Costs of Bank Leverage and the Boom in UK Housing Markets”. National Institute for Economic and Social Research(NIESR)/Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)/Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM) Third Annual Finance conference "The Future of Housing Finance", Bank of England, 12 Sept. 2014 

1st October, 2014: “EU Financial Regulation Conference”, QED, Brussels, presenter and chair.

6th – 8th November, 2014: “The EU Movement of Capital Freedom and the Unity of Free Movement". The European Law Network, ‘The Constitutional Implications of Free Movement’, Department of Private Law, University of Oslo

12th November, 2014: “A Critique of the NML Capital Ltd v Republic of Argentina and the Ensuing Saga Regarding the Ambit of Pari Passu”, Financial Markets Law Committee, “Roundtable on Sovereign Debt”, Bank of England. Chair: Mr Justice Knowles

21st – 22nd November, 2014: “Free Movement of Capital in an Imperfect Monetary Union: Any Remedies?” In “Europe at the Crossroads: A Union of Austerity or Growth Convergence?”, Levy Economics institute-Ford Foundation, Economia Civile, Ford Foundation, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

22nd – 23rd January, 2015:  “Critical Reflections on Bank Bail-ins” (with Charles Goodhart). Bi-annual conference of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, ‘Banking and regulation: the next frontier’, Bank of International Settlemens

David Cabrelli

2nd July, 2014: “The Foundations of Labour Law in the UK”. This paper was an invited lecture at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Bavaria

27th October, 2014:“Latest Developments in the Law of Unfair Contract Terms”. Presentation at the Contract section of CLT’s Scots Law Conference, Edinburgh  26th February, 2015: “Identifying the Content and Structure of Personal Work Contracts and Relations: Zero-Hours Contract Workers, Casual Workers and Employee Shareholders”. Invited lecture by the Industrial Law Society at Leeds Hilton Hotel

18th March, 2015:“There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Zero-Hours Contract”. Invited lecture by the Royal Faculty of Procurators of Glasgow

15th April, 2015: “The Personal Scope of European Labour Law”. Invited lecture by the Faculty of Law at the University of Pavia, Italy

Parker Hood

3rd October, 2014: Commentary on Paper presented by Ph D student, Chia-hsing Li (Gary), on “Distribution of Responsibility for the Supervision of Financial Institutions' Conduct in the EU”, to the Scottish Government Economists. This was done as part of Gary’s Interdisciplinary Scholarship from the Scottish Government. 

16th April, 2015: “Regulatory Developments in Banking Law Since 2009” – address given as part of a Conference by MBM Commercial LLP, on “The Changing Banking Landscape”, in Edinburgh.

Simone Lamont Black

14th May, 2014: “British American Tobacco v Exel Europe Ltd and others [2013] EWCA Civ 1319 - jurisdiction over successive CMR carriers in the English courts”. Paper presented at the Inter Tran research project Afternoon Seminar: “Recent developments on Jurisdiction and the Applicable Law in International Carriage of Goods” in Helsinki

11th-12th  September, 2014: “Third Parties in Transport Law: English law versus the Draft Common Frame of References”. Paper delivered at the 8th European Colloquium of Maritime Law Research (ECMLR) in Rotterdam

19th September, 2014: "Enhancement of harmonization, predictability and foreseeability through the EU guidance in transport law?". Paper presented on the Inter Tran Closing Conference in Helsinki

25th-26th October, 2014: “Freight forwarding – a comparative view (English, German and French perspectives)”. Paper presented on the Fifth Annual Oslo-Southampton-Tulane (OST) Colloquium, Tulane Maritime Law Centre, New Orleans

13th-14th November, 2014: Launch of English Translation of New German Maritime Law at annual conference of “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Transportrecht” (DTG) on 13-14th November 2014 in Bonn. The translation had been revised by an Expert Group and published by the (DGT).  Presented as completed Text published by DGT on their website. Dr Lamont Black participated as a member of this Expert Group.

27th February, 2015:“Choosing the Applicable Law: Trends in International Commercial Arbitration”. Presentation at Conference on “Arbitration and Private International Law Conference”, organised by Dr Veronica Ruiz Abou-Nigm (with the Edinburgh Centre for Private Law).

Remus Valsan

9th June, 2015:“Gender diversity and the relational theory of the board of directors” European Union Centre of Excellence, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Veronica Ruiz Abou-Nigm

 PILIM: “Private International Law and the Development of Integrated Markets: A Cross-Regional Collaboration” (Ruiz Abou-Nigm is the PI in this project funded by the British Academy (2014-2017, circa £ 30,000)

29th October, 2014: Second workshop: Porto Alegre, UFRGS project website. Dr Ruiz Abou-Nigm organised and chaired the event, and delivered a paper on “Mutual Trust and Integrated Markets”.

27th February, 2015: “Arbitration and Private International Law” Conference, Edinburgh. This conference attracted speakers and participants from across the world. It involved a mixture of a retired senior Scottish judge (Lord Hamilton), practitioners, and leading academics, as well as Ph D students.

The speakers included: Dr Ruiz Abou-Nigm and Noodt Taquela together with S Lamont-Black (Edinburgh); S Tang (Newcastle), C Berger (Leipzig, Germany); Lord Hamilton (Former Lord President of the Court of Session, Edinburgh); Y Baatz (Southampton); D Holloway (University of East Anglia); R Seyadi (Sheffield); S Paredes (UBA, Argentina); L Patterson (Partner in CMS Cameron McKenna, Scotland); K Noussia (Greece); L Capalbo (Uruguay); R Yaseen (Switzerland); C Fresnedo (Uruguay); D P Fernandez Arroyo (SciencesPo, Paris); and G Cordero-Moss (Oslo).

5th November, 2014: Presentation of PILIM at a staff research seminar, Edinburgh.

20th May, 2015: Presentation of PILIM’s research findings so far at a research seminar at Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Edinburgh Centre for Commercial Law

Notes of Lectures on the Law of Scotland, f.fl.2r

Bell and Beyond: The Development of Commercial Law in Scotland