Skip to main content
Centre for Commercial Law Studies
  1. Centre for Commercial Law Studies
  2. Research / Engagement
  3. Regulation and Ethics

Institute for Regulation and Ethics

Catherine Rogers, Stavros Brekoulakis, Costanza Russo
Catherine Rogers, Stavros Brekoulakis, Costanza Russo

The commercial and business world is facing unprecedented regulatory change, in terms of the number, speed, nature and form of new initiatives, their complexity, and their interplay. Regulatory developments raise fundamental questions about the economics of business models, organisational strategy, and, more generally, the sustainability and expediency of the current market structures that they intend to regulate. They also raise important questions in relation to corporate attitudes, ethical duties and responsibilities for a more sustainable model of activities and greater engagement with society.

Such a complex and rapidly changing landscape poses a challenge for regulators, as markets have become increasingly difficult to govern. This exposes the limitations of current forms of regulation. It also calls for novel forms of governance but it is unclear how experimental governance can be actually implemented in a way that is consistent with the demands of the rule of law. These developments have stimulated growing demand for research to guide policy makers and business leaders in to identify key developments and trends that are likely to determine future legal and regulatory reform, to assess how these developments will affect the conduct of daily business, and to plan  appropriate regulatory and business strategy in response.

Objectives and activities

The inter-relationship between commercial law, regulation and ethics is a new frontier for both law and regulation. The objective of the Institute for Regulation and Ethics will be to provide a focus for research on the legal, regulatory and ethical implications of market complexity and on the impact of regulatory reform on the regulatees and other stakeholders. It will actively involve regulators, governments, business, and the legal profession in its activities.  

The mission of the Institute for Regulation and Ethics is to:  

  • inform policy at a high level, and as it is being written, through engagement with regulators, governments and other policy makers nationally, regionally and internationally;
  • disseminate knowledge at an advanced level through publications, partnerships and events;
  • bring business, the legal profession and regulatory specialists together with governments, regulators and other policy makers to debate key issues leading to improvements in the regulatory environment;
  • combine excellence in teaching a new generation of regulation professionals and be at the forefront of legal scholarship and law reform.

As the leading postgraduate law school in Europe, the Centre for Commercial Law Studies is at the forefront of legal scholarship and law reform, influencing the development of commercial law in practice, and is an appropriate home for this Institute.

Members

Events

Publications

Overarching themes in Regulation and Ethics

The scope of work of the Institute is to:

  • Identify issues common to all forms of regulation;
  • Consider how a regulatory body should be structured and “who” should be the regulator;
  • Consider the benefits and disadvantages of self regulation;
  • Examine what powers regulators should hold and their constraints;
  • Consider who regulates the regulators;
  • Examine ethical duties and responsibilities of corporations
  • Examine ethical challenges of the legal profession in the 21st Century
  • Bring together and exploit synergies between business, scholarly research and policy making, and have impact beyond the confines of academia;
  • Be an active and influential forum for discussion attracting decision makers at the highest level;
  • Examine the boundaries and overlaps between law and regulation.

Specialist themes in Regulation and Ethics

The Institute for Regulation and Ethics has an interdisciplinary nature transcending the existing CCLS specialist groups, to draw together existing expertise in:

  • Arbitration
  • Banking and Finance
  • Energy
  • Insurance
  • Intellectual Property
  • Legal Profession
  • Media, Communications, and Information Technology
  • Taxation

Research Projects

Task Force on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration

In 2014, the Institute is co-hosting (with the International Council for Commercial Arbitration) a Task Force on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration, with the participation of a wide range of stakeholders, including third-party funders, arbitrators, practising arbitration lawyers and barristers, governmental officers and academics.

Third Party Funding has been described as “the climate change in international arbitration.” Funder participation in international arbitration gives rise to a host of complex procedural, structural and ethical issues, such as security for costs, allocation of costs, potential tensions between funders, parties and counsel in managing the dispute, transparency and disclosure, confidentiality, attorney ethics, arbitrator conflicts of interest, and tribunal powers.

The joint ICCA-Queen Mary (Institute for Regulation and Ethics) Task Force on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration was founded in 2014 to create a forum of discussion and debate where all stakeholders are represented and eventually to formulate and issue recommendations and guidance on all the above areas on TPF in arbitration.

The Task Force is co-Chaired by Professor Catherine Rogers, Professor William Park and Professor Stavros Brekoulakis and it is comprised of a diverse group of individuals who represent a wide spectrum of stakeholders, including arbitrators, arbitration lawyers, third party funders, governmental representatives and academics, from a range of jurisdictions.

The Task Force has been operating through several sub-committees, each of which has been commissioned to investigate and produce a report on a specific topic.

  • Subcommittee on Costs lead by Professor Stavros  Brekoulakis
  • Subcommittee on Conflicts of Interests lead by Professors Victoria Shannon and Catherine Rogers
  • Subcommittee on Definitions lead by Duarte Henriques
  • Subcommittee on Investment Arbitration lead Anna-Jubin-Bret and Sabine Konrad
  • Subcommittee on TPF Best Practices, lead by
  • Subcommittee on Attorney-Client Privilege, lead by Nikolaus Pitkowitz and Ania Farren

The final work of the Task Force will be published in the form of Guidelines on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration as a volume in the ICCA series. The publication of the Guidelines is expected by September 2016, and will also include chapters on the mechanics of how third-party funding operates and on definitions of third-party funding.

Download a here [PDF] [PDF 298KB].

Law and Ethics in Finance Project

Dr Costanza Russo is the co-founder of a research project, the “Law and Ethics in Finance Project” that aims at investigating the possible pathways to change culture in the banking sector. Other members include senior judges and barristers.

Alumni

As an alumnus of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, we welcome you to the CCLS Community. On the CCLS Alumni pages, you can find a variety of information and exclusive opportunities available for our Alumni including:

You can also read profiles from past alumni and find out various ways you can support us.

If you would like to contact the CCLS Alumni and Development Team, please contact ccls-alumni@qmul.ac.uk or call +44 (0) 7585 888411.

Back to top