Call for Papers and Workshop Report: 2nd ‘The Future of Business Law: Diversifying Voices and Perspectives’ Workshop (2025)

On Friday, 25 April 2025, the University of Leeds School of Law’s Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP) will host the 2nd edition of the workshop ‘The Future of Business Law: Diversifying Voices and Perspectives’. The 1st workshop in this series was hosted by Durham University’s Institute for Commercial and Corporate Law on 1 May 2024. The Call for Papers and Expressions of Interest for the 2nd workshop can be found here.

Those interested in responding to the Call for Papers and Expressions of Interest, or in otherwise participating in the 2nd Future of Business Law workshop are invited to read the Workshop Report for the 1st edition:

On 1 May 2024, co-organisers Virág Blazsek (University of Leeds School of Law) and Clara Martins Pereira (Durham University School of Law) brought together over 40 business law scholars at different stages of their careers, including post-graduate research students and early-career researchers. The workshop’s aim was to attract, showcase, and inspire perspectives currently underrepresented in business law research and teaching.

Speakers joined the workshop from across the UK and abroad. The programme included two research-focused discussion panels, a teaching-focused roundtable, and a groupwork session discussing pathways to impact.

The first session on ‘New trends in business law: technology, sustainability and inclusion’ was chaired by Virág Blazsek. First, Longjie Lu (Edinburgh Law School) presented a recently published paper on ‘ESG-based remuneration in the wave of sustainability’, noting how ESG-based remuneration is often adopted as a tactic for impression management and managerial rent extraction, and that  companies looking to promote long-term shareholder value might instead consider extending the assessment period of financial performance. Next, Tatheer Fatima (Mahindra University School of Law, India) discussed her forthcoming paper on ‘The Law and Economics of Decentralised Autonomous Organisations’, reflecting on how DAOs represent a paradigm shift in the organisation of economic activity, challenging prevailing assumptions about corporate governance, accountability and stakeholder participation, and raising novel regulatory challenges and concerns. Third, Andromachi Georgosouli (Queen Mary University of London School of Law) presented a forthcoming paper on ‘What is next for financial consumer protection?’, exploring the main justifications for consumer protection, considering the scope of relevant UK regulatory framework and providing a new taxonomy for consumer protection strategies.

The second session on ‘New approaches to corporate governance: past, present and future’ was chaired by Clara Martins Pereira. First, Neeti Shikha (University of the West of England, Bristol) presented a paper co-authored with Ilias Kapsis (City University Law School) on ‘Decolonising Corporate Governance Discussions - Addressing Local Peculiarities through Global Debates’, arguing that while corporate governance laws in common law jurisdictions are heavily influenced by UK frameworks, transplants of UK law are not always desirable, leading to important divergences in practice under the surface of macro level similarities. Next, Param Pandya (National University of Singapore School of Law) presented a chapter of his PhD thesis on directors’ duties and stakeholders’ interests, mapping out mechanisms for enforcing directors’ duties to consider stakeholders’ interests, and discussing the understated importance of these duties and their enforcement. Finally, Sarah Wilson (York Law School) presented her work on ‘New Directions in Business Law: Championing a ‘Law and History’ Approach in the Analysis of Law’, arguing that a ‘law and history’ approach to business law can provide a useful marker for academics looking to interrogate law from beyond their own discipline, turning to History for unique insights and inspiration.

In the afternoon teaching roundtable discussion, participants discussed the increasing need and demand for interdisciplinarity in business law teaching, the challenges of ‘decolonising’ teaching in business law, the importance of embracing examples from a wider array of jurisdictions in business law teaching, and changing expectations from students, particularly in a post-COVID, post-generative AI world. The event closed with a groupwork session on creating pathways for impact, where participants discussed different measures of impact, audiences for impact and the pernicious consequences of putting excessive emphasis on impact.

Based on post-event feedback, participants found the workshop helpful, emphasizing its role in creating a supportive network for early career academics in business law. The 2nd edition of this Workshop seeks to support the development of such a network.

The Call for Papers for the 2025 Workshop is open through Friday, 28 February 2025. Authors of accepted submissions will receive notification by Friday, 28 March 2025. Attendance will be free for selected participants and participation includes materials, lunch, tea, and refreshments.

Virág Blazsek is Lecturer in Commercial, Corporate and Banking Law at the University of Leeds School of Law.

Clara Martins Pereira is Associate Professor of Financial Law at Durham University School of Law.