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Dr Guido Comparato

Positions held:
  • Reader in Private Law, Birkbeck Law School
Address

Room B03, 12 Gower Street

Email
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  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Dr Guido Comparato is a Reader at Birkbeck, University of London and serves as Director of the LLM programme in Commercial Law. He joined Birkbeck as a Lecturer in 2017.

    He holds a Bachelor degree in legal studies with distinction (cum laude) and a M.Sc. in law with distinction (cum laude) in law, both from the University of Ferrara, Italy. He has also studied law at the University of Heidelberg and has been a visiting research student at other universities in Germany.

    He received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam, where he was a doctoral researcher within the Centre for the Study of European Contract Law (now Amsterdam Center for Transformative Private Law). He has been a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law of Hamburg. He later joined the European University Institute in Florence as a post-doctoral Research Associate where he collaborated on a ERC-funded research project on European regulatory private law.

    He was then a Lecturer in commercial law at Brunel University London where he also served as deputy director of postgraduate research.

    Dr Comparato researches in the fields of comparative, transnational and European private and economic law, considered from an interdisciplinary perspective concerned with the political dimension of law. He has several publications in those areas, including two monographs with Bloomsbury/Hart Publishing.

    He is a non-practicing Solicitor of England and Wales. In addition to that, he has advised a number of national and international organisations on issues of consumer, commercial, and international financial law.

    Highlights

    • Book: G. Comparato, The Financialisation of the Citizen. Social and Financial Inclusion through European Private Law (Bloomsbury/Hart Publishing, 2018)

    • Book: G. Comparato, Nationalism and Private Law in Europe (Bloomsbury/Hart Publishing, 2014)

    Office hours

    Please book an appointment by email.

    Web profiles

    Administrative responsibilities

    • Programme Director LLM Commercial Law

    Professional activities

    Solicitor of England and Wales

    Professional memberships

    • Society of European Contract Law

    • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

    • Ius Commune Research School

    • Associazione Italiana di Diritto Comparato

  • Research

    Research

    Research interests

    • Comparative Law
    • Consumer Law
    • European Private Law
    • EU law
    • International Economic Law
    • Private law theory
    • Law and financial capitalism
    • Law and nationalism
    • Legal cultures
    • Legal history
    • Private autonomy and regulation
    • Constitutional dimension of private law
    • Social function of private law

    Research overview

    Dr Comparato’s main research interests lie in the theory and politics of private and economic law in international and transnational context. His research has focused in particular on the impact of nationalism, post-industrialism, and financialisation on the evolution of private and economic law in Europe. He writes on issues of EU private law and consumer law. His research method is comparative, critical, and interdisciplinary.

  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Supervisions within Birkbeck:
    1

    Dr Comparato welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD students interested in undertaking studies in any of the areas listed under “research interests”.

    He particularly encourages projects adopting critical, comparative and interdisciplinary (political theory, geopolitics, economics, sociology) approaches to the law.

    Current doctoral researchers

    • KASO KARDONYA
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor, onwards
      Title of thesis:
      Choice of Court agreements in Private International Law of insurance contracts: An analysis of harmonisation efforts in the field of jurisdictional party autonomy in insurance contracts globally and in Europe.
      Description:

      My doctoral research constitutes a thorough exploration of the concept of party autonomy within the choice of court agreements in the Private International Law of insurance contracts. This study entails a meticulous analysis of the principle of party autonomy, as elucidated by prominent legal instruments. It delves into issues related to jurisdiction, recognition, and enforcement of judgments arising under the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements, the Hague Judgment Project, the Lugano Convention, and the Brussels Ia Regulations, with a specific focus on the matter related to choice of court agreements in insurance contracts, including protection of weaker party in insurance contracts.

    Teaching

    Dr Comparato teaches several core and optional modules relating to private, commercial, and economic law, both at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

    He also previously taught consumer law, EU law, international trade law, commercial law and comparative law at other institutions.

    Teaching modules

    • Contract Law (LADD034S4)
    • Banking and Monetary Law (LALW016H6)
    • Law of the Digital Economy (LALW063S7)
    • Introduction to Commercial Law (LALW082H5)
    • Commercial Law and Market Regulation (LALW102S7)
    • Contract Law (GDL) (LALW112H6)