International Economic and Commercial Law Cluster

The International Economic and Commercial Law Cluster, which forms a part of the Centre for Justice Law and Society, brings together the corporate, finance, economic, technology and commercial law-facing researchers into a single collaborative space.

Together, we have expertise in international corporate finance and cross-border insolvency law, white-collar crime and corporate criminal liability, international trade and investment law, arbitration, sustainability in business development, corporate rescue and restructuring, employment and labour law, social policy issues within the corporate sphere, theoretical approaches to fairness toward corporate stakeholders, equity, the law of trusts, property law, regulatory compliance, public international law, intellectual property, the ethics of artificial intelligence, with a broad underpinning of theoretical approaches including social contract theory, feminist legal jurisprudence, comparative law, and some aspects of socio-legal studies.

Our aims

Our aims are to engage in innovative and impactful research in the economic, corporate, commercial, and international trade law spheres to shift and modernise perceptions in these areas of law. We also aim to engage with international, national, and regional partners and contacts to collaborate and disseminate our research widely to raise our individual, cluster, centre, and university profiles on the global stage. Finally, we aim to develop sustainable solutions to the regulatory issues facing modern businesses with the wider socio-economic implications of business operations in mind.

Research Cluster Leads

Flora -facing forwards
Professor Flora Huang

As a Professor of Law and Business, Flora Huang focuses her research on corporate and financial law, international trade law, arbitration, Chinese law as well as law and sustainable development.

Dr Jennifer L L Gant

Jennifer is a senior lecturer in law and is involved in several initiatives within the Student Legal Advice Centre. She is an active researcher in insolvency and restructuring law and its interaction.

Research Cluster Team

Our Research

With its members hailing from diverse backgrounds and actively engaging with policy and industry, the International Economic and Commercial Law Cluster has emerged as a hub for cultivating a collaborative environment among legal experts, policymakers, and industry leaders. This collaborative effort is aimed at effectively addressing the complexities and challenges inherent in the ever-evolving international economic and commercial landscape. Through cutting-edge research, innovative legal analyses, and impactful policy recommendations, the cluster will continue to play a crucial role in shaping the development of various sectors, encompassing finance, trade, investment, consumer protection, insolvency, economic crimes, and intellectual property. Its impact resonates across borders, promoting a more just, transparent, and resilient international economic and commercial environment.

Successful funding

Ms. Michala Meiselles was awarded funding by the Society of Legal Scholars (2022 & 2024) for the series of annual conferences, she convenes, on white-collar and cybercrimes (hybrid) and special issues on corporate criminal liability.

Dr. Alex Ansong was the Ghana Coordinator for the research project ‘Realising the Sustainable Development Goals: The Role of Responsible Business’ funded by the Danish International Development Agency and the Danish Institute for Human Rights (2018-23).

Prof. Flora Huang has received the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (2024); the UK Research and Innovation QR Fund (2024) and Policy and Participatory Research Fund (2022). Additionally, she was awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship (2019-20), and other grants from the ESRC, AHRC, the British Academy, China Innovation Development Funds, Newton Funds, and the City Venture Research Grant.

Conferences

White-Collar Crime – Challenges and Solutions on 12 December 2023

This conference, building upon our inaugural event in June 2022 titled 'Too Big to Convict? Corporate Criminal Liability – Challenges and Solutions,' featured speakers from various nations and organisations, including Uzbekistan, Poland, Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada, and more.

With over 120 participants from diverse backgrounds such as banking, compliance, financial intelligence units, international organisations, academia, and students, this transnational and inter-institutional conference, hosted by the University of Derby in collaboration with Cardiff University, UWE, the University of Portsmouth, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, and the London Centre for Commercial and Financial Law, aimed to convene academics, researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and law enforcement officials. Together, they explored different jurisdictional models addressing corporate criminal liability while assessing associated challenges.

Contemporary developments in Domestic and International Law, the Annual Derby Law School Conference on 14 June 2023

The conference focused on a review of contemporary issues that confronts both domestic and international law, in aspects such as Law and Technology, International Investment Law Reform, Access to Justice and Rule of Law, and challenges in International Commercial Law. Panellists examined diverse challenges in law, and provided research-based proposals for reforms in light of identified issues.

Participants in the conference were drawn from within the UK and other countries. With an average of 50 participants, all panellists and attendees engaged in an extensive investigation and exploration of issues that challenged domestic and international law, with the publication of journals and a forthcoming book being key outcomes from the conference, and potential application of reform proposals from therein in future.

Seminars and external engagements

  • 15 November 2023 – Dr Alex Ansong – ‘State Sovereignty and Dispute Settlement in the African Continental Free Trade Area’
  • 24 January 2024 – Nanjwan Yale Damap (PhD Candidate) – ‘Regulation of Cryptocurrency as a Protected Investment under International Investment Law’
  • 6 March 2024 – Dr Taiwo Oriola – ‘The Legal Paradoxes of Online Moderation Systems’
  • 24 April 2024 – Dr Richard Oppong will present and online seminar.

Professor Flora Huang

Prof. Flora Huang adeptly engages with the public, governments and international organisations, shaping policy through informed dialogue and strategic collaboration. She has worked for international organisations such as the European Commission, UNEP and UNHQ. Additionally, she served on the Working Committee of a global affluential think-tank, the Legatum Institute, where she contributed to compiling the Global Prosperity Index, measuring prosperity in 167 countries worldwide along with former central bank chiefs and eminent economists. In 2022, she was appointed by the European Commission as the Chairperson for Arbitrations and the Trade-and-Sustainable-Development Expert Panel Proceedings to assist the Commission in resolving state-to-state trade and investment disputes. She is also an arbitrator at the China Guangzhou Arbitration Commission. As an associate member of Whistleblowers UK, she has assisted the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in hosting parliamentary debates on the whistleblowing bill.

Flora’s peer recognition is demonstrated through numerous visiting professorships and roles as a reviewer. Notable roles include Central Asian Research Fellow in Uzbekistan 2022-2024, Visiting Professor at the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2019, and at Macau University in 2017. She is a member of the Peer Review College of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), a grant panel reviewer for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Qatar National Research Fund, and an expert panellist for the Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme administered by the Hong Kong Government.

Dr Jennifer Gant

Dr. Jennifer Gant is the Co-Chair of the INSOL Europe Academic Forum and a Delegate of CERIL, a European Insolvency and Restructuring Law think tank. She serves as the Co-chair of CERIL Working Party 18 on judicial education and training in insolvency. She is also a contributor to the Research Network on Public Authorities and Financial Distress. She is a member of the editorial board for the Eleven International Publishing Series on European and International Insolvency Law Studies.

Ms Michala Meiselles

Ms. Michala Meiselles is a UNESCO consultant examining the impact of digital education on the right to education. She is Chief Editor of two collections for Routledge looking at white-collar crime and corporate criminal liability. She is lead editor for a Special Issue looking at white-collar crime and corporate criminal liability. Additionally, she is the conference convenor for the Law and Literature Conference 2024, the Annual Conference on Education in Law 2023, the Annual Conference on Financial and White-Collar Crime, and the 'Too Big to Convict?' Conference on Corporate Criminal Liability and White-Collar Crime 2022.

Dr Taiwo Oriola

Dr. Taiwo Oriola drafted a software licencing agreement template for Fishbourne Solutions, an online software vendor and a start-up technology business in Derbyshire. The project was under the auspices of Enscite Project, University of Derby.

Join us

Please contact Prof. Flora Huang (f.huang@derby.ac.uk) or Dr. Jennifer Gant (j.gant@derby.ac.uk) if you wish to join this cluster or apply for a PhD in this area.

Publications

  • Chinese and Global Financial Integration through Stock Connect: A Legal Analysis (Hart  2023)
  • Institutions and Economic Growth in Asia (Routledge 2018)
  • Chinese Companies and the Hong Kong Stock Market (Routledge 2014)
  • Submission with H Yeung to House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Inquiry on the UK’s Engagement in Central Asia cited in the report of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee ‘Countries at Crossroads: UK Engagement in Central Asia’ (2023)
  • Written Evidence in response to “China and the International Rule-based System Inquiry”, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons in the UK (2019)
  • ‘Stock Connect: Integration, Internationalisation and Implementation’ (2021) 7 Journal of Business Law 558.
  • ‘Enforcement Strategies in Chinese Capital Market’ in Robert Goddard and Daniel Cash (eds), Regulation and The Global Financial Crisis: Impact, Regulatory Responses, and Beyond (Routledge 2021) with J H Liu.
  • ‘Institutional Development and the Astana International Financial Centre’ (2020) 19(1) Washington University Global Studies Law Review 53 (with others).
  • ‘Sino-African Trade: A Multi-layered Appraisal’ (2020) 17(1) Manchester Journal of International Economic Law 140 (with H Yeung).
  • ‘Shareholder Protection in China from a Numerical Comparative Law Perspective’ (2019) 7(1) Chinese Journal of Comparative Law 124.
  • Rethinking Insolvency Law Theories in a Changing World: Perspectives for the 21st Century (Elgar 2023) (edited with Emilie Ghio & John Wood)
  • Corporate Recovery in an Integrated Europe: Harmonisation, Coordination and Judicial Cooperation (Edward Elgar Publishing 2022) (with Irene Lynch Fannon, Aoife Finnerty and as supported by the JCOERE Consortium)
  • Research Handbook on Corporate Restructuring (Edward Elgar Publishing 2021) (edited with Paul J. Omar)
  • Balancing the Protection of Business and Employment in Insolvency - An Anglo-French Perspective (Eleven International Publishing 2017)
  • Vulnerability, Resilience, and Employees: Can a Higher Degree of Fairness be Achieved by Looking Beyond Traditional Insolvency Norms?’ in Jason Harris (ed), Insolvency: A Research Agenda forthcoming in 2024 (Edward Elgar 2024)
  • ‘Resisting Global Convergence’ in Emilie Ghio and Ricardo Perlingeiro (eds), National Legal Systems: Convergence or Divergence? Lessons from Contemporary Crises (Springer 2024)
  • ‘Vulnerability Theory and Insolvency Law’ in Rethinking Insolvency Law Theories in a Changing World: Perspectives for the 21st Century, which she also co-edited with Emilie Ghio and John Wood (Edward Elgar 2023)
  • ‘Floating Charges and Moral Hazard: Searching for Fairness for Involuntary and Vulnerable Stakeholders’ in Jonathan Hardman and Alistair MacPherson (eds), The Floating Charge in Scotland: New Perspectives and Current Issues (Edinburgh University Press 2022)
  • ‘Reconsidering Fairness for Vulnerable and Involuntary Stakeholders in Insolvency and Restructuring’ in Emilie Ghio and Eugenio Vaccari (eds), The Emerging New Landscape of European Restructuring and Insolvency (INSOL Europe 2022)
  • ‘In the Garden of Corporate Rescue: Cross-Fertilisation of European Legislative Ideas in a Post-Brexit Britain’ (with Eugenio Vaccari) (2022) (W-002) Herstructurering & Recovery Online 
  • “Optimising Fairness in Insolvency and Restructuring: A Spotlight on Vulnerable Stakeholders” (2022) 31(1) International Insolvency Review 1
  • ‘Employees as Stakeholders in Restructuring and Insolvency: Acquired Rights and Business Transfers’ and ‘The Role of Social Policy in Corporate Rescue and Restructuring: a Messy in a Research Handbook on Corporate Restructuring, which she also co-edited with Paul Omar (Edward Elgar Publishing 2021)
  • “Harmonising Insolvency Law in the EU: New Thoughts on Old Ideas in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic” (2021) 30(3) International Insolvency Review 427 (with Emilie Ghio, Gert-Jan Boon, David Ehmke, Line Lanjkaer, and Eugenio Vaccari)
  • “Britain and Brexit: A Forecast of the Future of Employment Protection during Corporate Insolvency” (2020) 29(1) International Insolvency Review 61.
  • “Judicial Co-Operation in the European Union: Insolvency and Rescue” (2020) 2 International and Commercial and Company Law Review 65 (with Irene Lynch Fannon and Aoife Finnerty).
  • “JCOERE Judicial Co-operation Supporting Economic Recovery in Europe: Report 1” available with the JCOERE Consortium comprised of researchers from the University College Cork, Università degli Studi di Firenze in Italy, the Universitea Titu Maiorescu in Romania, and INSOL Europe.
  • “JCOERE Judicial Co-operation Supporting Economic Recovery in Europe: Report 2” available from < JCOERE Judicial Co-operation Supporting Economic Recovery in Europe> with the JCOERE Consortium comprised of researchers from the University College Cork, Università degli Studi di Firenze in Italy, the Universitea Titu Maiorescu in Romania, and INSOL Europe.
  • “Moral Hazard, Path Dependency, and Failing Franchisors: Mitigating Franchisee Risk through Participation” (2019) 47(2) Federal Law Review 261 (with Professor Jenny Buchan).
  • “Restructuring Europe - The EU Preventive Restructuring Framework: a Hole in One?” (2019) 28(2) International Insolvency Review 184 (with David Ehmke, Gert-Jan Boon, Line Langjkaer, and Emilie Ghio (the YANIL Board).
  • Impact of Digital Education on the Right to Education (2024, UNESCO)
  • Corporate Criminal Liability and Sanctions (lead editor) (2024, Routledge)
  • Contemporary Economic Crime: Issues and Challenges (lead editor) (2025, Routledge)
  • International Licensing Agreements: IP, Technology Transfer and Competition Law (2018, Kluwer)
  • International Commercial Agreements - An Edinburgh Guide (2013, Edinburgh University Press)
  • Parents coping with online grooming events experienced by their teenage children (with Dr Dolev-Cohen and Tamar Yosef) (under review)
  • Food for Thought - Mandatory disclosure and food labelling regulation in the EU, Irish Journal of European Law 2021, 23
  • US Franchise Regulation as a Paradigm for the European Union, Wash.U. Global Studies Law Review 2021, 20
  • Societas Europaea (SE) – Time to Start Over? European Business Law Review 2017, 28(5)
  • The European Economic Interest Grouping – A Chance for Multinationals? European Business Law Review 2015, 26(3)
  • Civil Law Consequences of Corruption and Bribery in France, in The Civil Law Consequences of Corruption, Olaf Meyer (ed) (2009, Nomos) (with Beatrice Jaluzot)Books
  • Economic Crime – Issues and Challenges (co-editors: Professor Ryder and Dr Penny Giosa) (Routledge forthcoming in 2026)
  • Corporate Criminal Liability and Sanctions (co-editors: Professor Nic Ryder and Professor Arianna Visconti) (Routledge forthcoming in 2025)
  • International Licensing Agreements: IP, Technology Transfer and Competition Law (Kluwer 2018)
  • International Commercial Agreements - An Edinburgh Guide (Edinburgh University Press 2013)
  • 'Civil Law Consequences of Corruption and Bribery in France', in Olaf Meyer (ed)  Civil Law Consequences of Corruption (Nomos 2009) (with Professor Beatrice Jaluzot)
  • ‘The Societas Europaea (SE) – Time to Start Over?’ (2017) 28(5) European Business Law Review 667 (with Marta Graute)
  • ‘The European Economic Interest Grouping – A Chance for Multinationals?’ (2015) 26(3) European Business Law Review 391
  • International Investment Law Reforms: Contemporary Issues and Solutions (Routledge forthcoming in 2025)
  • 'Investor-state Arbitration and African States: Advancing the Proposal for a Pan-African Investment Court' (2018) 29(2) International Company and Commercial Law Review 95.
  • ‘African Continental Free Trade Area: Promises and Perils’, in Tom Mortimer & Chrispas Nyombi (eds), Rebalancing International Investment Agreements in Favour of Host States (Wildly, Simmonds & Hill Publishing 2018)
  • 'International Business and Human Rights: Time for Hard Law' (2016) 27(10) International Company and Commercial Law Review 343
  • ‘State Sovereignty and Dispute Settlement in the African Continental Free Trade Area’, in Regulation of African Trade: The Impact of the African Continental Free Trade Area (Routledge, forthcoming 2024)
  • ‘Exploring Legal and Non-Legal Approaches to Eliminating Child Labour in the Cocoa Industry in Ghana’, (Journal of Legal Studies forthcoming in 2024)
  • ‘International Trade Relations after the COVID-19 Pandemic: Africa Rising?’ (2021) 6(1) GIMPA Law Review 104
  • ‘New Regulations and Impact on Business’, in Adapting to the New Normal: Compliance in Times of a Pandemic (Alliance for Integrity Ghana 2020)
  • ‘SDG 8 and Elimination of Child Labour in the Cocoa Industry in Ghana: Can WTO Law and Private Sector Responsible Business Initiatives Help?’ (Forum for Development Studies, 2020)
  • ‘The WTO Appellate Body: Are There Any Viable Solutions?’ (2019) 14(4) Global Trade and Customs Journal 169
  • ‘International Economic Law in Africa: Is the African Continental Free Trade Area a Viable Project?’ (2019) International Company and Commercial Law Review
  • ‘Single Undertaking, Different Speeds: Pliable Models for Decision-Making in the WTO’ (2018) 21(2) Journal of International Economic Law 395
  • ‘Unclogging WTO Decision-Making with the Provisions on Amendments in Article X of the WTO Agreement’ (2018) 26(2) African Journal of International and Comparative Law 227
  • ‘Democracy in the World Trade Organization: Are Some Members More Equal Than Others?’ (2017) 14(1) International Organizations Law Review 154
  • ‘Internet Laws’ in K Ahmad (ed), Social Computing and the Law: Uses and Abuses in Exceptional Circumstances, (Cambridge University Press 2018)
  • ‘The Limits of Regulatory Science in Transnational Governance of Transgenic Plant Agriculture and Food Systems’ (2014) 39 North Carolina Journal of International Law & Commercial Regulation 757
  • ‘Bugs for Sale: Legal and Ethical Proprieties of the Market in Software Vulnerabilities’ (2011) 28(4) John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information Law 451
  • 'The Use of Legal Software by Non-Lawyers and the Perils of Unauthorised Practice of Law Charges in the United States’ (2010) 18(3) The Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Law 285
  • ‘Ethical and Legal Analyses of Policy Prohibiting Tobacco Smoking in Enclosed Public Spaces’ (2009) 7(4) The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 828
  • ‘Strong Medicine: Patents, Market, and Policy Challenges for Managing Neglected Diseases and Affordable Prescription Drug’ (2009) 7(3) 57

  • ‘Baker v Craggs: Trusts during the Registration Gap in Registered Land’ (2017) 23(9) Trusts & Trustees 958