The Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law and the Centre for Commercial Law and Financial Regulation (University of Reading) recently organised a joint conference to discuss the ways in which innovative technologies could be embedded into, and aligned with, commercial law.
The event attracted leading academics from the United Kingdom, Australia and Europe, and gave rise to a fruitful exchange of ideas, and a showcase for some of the best academic work currently being done in the area. An important addition was a session devoted to letting the brightest PhD students test their ideas in front of a high-powered audience.
The IISTL was represented by Professors Leloudas, Soyer and Tettenborn, who made detailed presentations on unmanned aircraft systems, distributed ledger technology and insurance, and the much-overlooked interface between AI-enabled entities and the traditional rules of agency and representation.
The full list of presenters included, apart from those already mentioned, the following:
- Professor Christine Riefa (University of Reading)
- Professor Peter Rott (Oldenburg University, Germany)
- Professor Iris Benöhr (University of Southampton)
- Dr Sarah Brown (University of Reading)
- Dr Tim Dodsworth (University of Newcastle)
- Professor Mateja Durovic (King’s College London)
- Professor Richard Hyde (University of Nottingham)
- Dr Monica Vessio (University of Exeter)
- Dr Kyriaki Noussia (University of Reading)
- Ms Deirdre Norris (University College Dublin)
- Professor Orkun Akseli (University of Manchester)
- Professor Andrea Lista (University of Southampton)
- Professor Sally Wheeler (ANU College of Law, Australia)
- Dr Victoria Barnes (Queens University Belfast)
- Dr Ekaterina Pannebaker (University of Leiden, Netherlands)
- Dr Başak Bak (University of Reading)
Speaking after the event, Professor Soyer, the Director of the IISTL, said:
“The idea of holding this series of a conferences came serendipitously to Professor James Devenney, Dr Andrea Miglionico and me while we were discussing something else during an earlier visit to Reading.
I am delighted that we have managed to make it happen so soon and brought together our colleagues, who are all passionate about commercial law.
We are already excited about the prospect of hosting this event at Swansea in 2025 and making it even better. After that it will become a biennial fixture, preferably on each occasion at a university in a different part of the UK. We already have a number of possible locations in mind.”