UCL Laws welcomes new academic and research staff joining in 2024-25

Dr Franziska Arnold-Dwyer is Associate Professor of Law. She will be teaching German Law II, Contract Law and International Trade Law and conducts research in insurance law and sustainability. Prior to joining UCL, she was a Reader and the Director of the Insurance, Shipping & Aviation Law Institute at QMUL. Dr Arnold-Dwyer is a qualified solicitor and practised law at Clifford Chance. She is the author/editor of a number of insurance law books and has published in leading journals.

Mr Ian Browne is Lecturer (Teaching) in Law. Ian will teach Public Law, Employment Law, and the new Social Welfare Law module on the LLB. Ian will also support students in working at iLAC, undertaking pro bono opportunities and for future careers in public interest law. Prior to joining UCL, Ian practiced as a barrister and worked at numerous non-profit campaigning, strategic litigation and legal support organisations. He specialises in equality, human rights and social welfare law, and widening access to justice.

Dr Martin Fischer is Lecturer in Commercial Law. He has taught previously at the University of Cape Town and Downing College Cambridge. His main areas of interest are in private law theory and in legal philosophy.

Dr Bernard Keenan is Lecturer in Law. He joins from Birkbeck Law School. His teaching and research ranges across law and digital technology, surveillance, national security, property, human rights, and social theory. His book, Interception: State Surveillance from Postal Systems to Global Networks, will be published by MIT Press in 2025.

Professor Orla Lynskey is Professor of Law and Technology. Her research interests lie primarily in privacy, data governance and platform regulation and she will teach Internet Law and Tort Law on the LLB and Privacy, Data and Surveillance Law on the LLM. Dr Lynskey holds a Visiting Professorship at the College of Europe Bruges. She is an Articles editor of the Modern Law Review and joint Editor-in-Chief of OUP’s International Data Privacy Law.

Dr Stavros Makris is Lecturer in Law. In his research, Dr Makris shows how competition law can adapt to epistemic and societal change; how competition law and regulation can make digital markets competitive and fair; and how sustainability concerns can be incorporated into competition analysis. Prior to joining UCL, Dr Makris was a Lecturer in Competition Law at the University of Glasgow, a Fellow in Law at LSE, and a Teaching Fellow at SciencesPo.

Also joining the Faculty will be Professor Nick Hopkins, appointed as Professor of Land Law. Professor Hopkins will commence his appointment in June 2025.

In addition, UCL Laws announced the appointment of Professor Erin Delaney to Leverhulme Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law earlier this month.

UCL Laws has also recently welcomed new Research staff.

Dr Katherine Auty is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Access to Justice. Previously, she was a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge. Her research involved examining the moral and social quality of life in prisons in England and Wales and internationally, and its relationship to outcomes such as violence, self-harm, self-inflicted death and reoffending. Her research interests include the application of quantitative research methods, programme evaluation theory and practice, and developmental criminology.

Rukevwe Otive-Igbuzor is Research Assistant at the Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism (launching later this academic year). Rukevwe’s experience spans across the legal and development sectors in the UK and Nigeria, and she has worked with various think tanks, law firms, non-governmental organisations, and legal advice clinics. Rukevwe is also admitted to the Nigerian Bar.

Professor Kimberley Trapp, Deputy Dean (People) at UCL Laws, said:

“We are delighted to welcome our new colleagues to UCL Laws for the 2024-25 academic year. Their broad range of expertise and experience will undoubtedly enrich both our teaching and our world-class research community, further promoting UCL Laws values of excellence and inclusion.”