Call for Papers, Spring Term 2027 Global Corporate Law Seminar Series

This is a call for papers for the Global Corporate Law Seminar Series’ Spring Term 2027.

We invite contributions for our online seminar series on Histories of Corporate Law. Contributions should be located within the broad field of corporate law and/or corporate governance. Presentations on any topic within this theme are welcome, including but not limited to:

• Origins of Corporate Law & Business Vehicles
• Concepts Related to Corporate Legal Personality
• Legal Biography of Core Figures 
• Connections between Corporate Law and Economic Development
• Convergences & Divergences, Including Contextual Factors and/or Functional Equivalents
• Legal Evolution, Including Legal Transplants and/or Travelling Cases 
• Start / End of Corporate Law History 
• Comparative & Transnational Histories
• Competing Models of the Corporation 

Format

The Global Corporate Law Seminar Series operates virtually. Seminars take place weekly, over morning tea or lunch. 

To encourage participation in discussions of topics that may be politically sensitive in some jurisdictions and to protect your privacy, we do not record any online meetings.

Submissions

Please send a 250-word abstract and short CV to peter.underwood@auckland.ac.nz by 1st December 2026.

About the Global Corporate Law Seminar Series

The Global Corporate Law Seminar Series brings together those exploring company regulation from around the globe. In the present era of de-globalisation, policy-makers have been either slow, reluctant or unwilling to recognise the importance of global exchanges. Following the disruption to supply chains in the wake of Brexit and amid rising geopolitical tension in an era of geo-economics, there is now widespread acknowledgement that commerce is global in nature. Yet international commercial exchanges are not new. Companies have long looked to new markets to expand and entrepreneurs have built new customer bases overseas since time immemorial. Traders have often sought finance, agents or intermediaries to facilitate the sale of goods. Law influences the terms of commercial transactions at all levels.

It is organised by Dr Victoria Barnes (Queen's University Belfast), Dr Jonathan Hardman (University of Edinburgh), Professor Eva Micheler (University of Oxford), Dr Peter Underwood (University of Auckland), and Professor Sally Wheeler (Birkbeck, University of London).