Dr Michiel Poesen

Biography

Michiel is lecturer of private international law and co-director of the Centre for Private International Law and Transnational Governance. He currently is a visiting professor of private international law at KU Leuven, Belgium. Previously, he lectured at Maastricht University, the Netherlands and KU Leuven. He also was a postdoctoral fellow of the KU Leuven Research Fund. In August 2023, he was a visiting researcher at the Singapore Management University.

Michiel has published extensively on various topics relating to the regional and international harmonisation of private international law and has worked on an array of projects relating to the reform of private international law in the European Union. His current work focuses on the intersection between the governance of Artificial Intelligence and private international law, and the role of private international law in transnational corporate accountability for human rights infringements. 

Michiel will be contributing the entry on AI and private international law to the next edition of the Encyclopedia of Private International Law. 

His work on the scope of jurisdiction in matters relating to a contract in the Brussels Ia Regulation was cited by Advocate General Szpunar in Case C-265/21 AB, AB-CD v Z EF. Further, Michiel's work was cited in the 2022 edition of Dicey, Morris & Collins on the Conflict of Laws and the 2023 Study to support the preparation of a report on the application of the Brussels Ia Regulation.

Michiel is a contributor to the Thomson Reuters Practical Law Series on Dispute Resolution. He also analyses decisions of the CJEU on private international law for EU Law Live.

Michiel co-convenes the Private International Law (formerly Conflict of Laws) Section of the UK Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) together with Dr Patricia Živković.

Research Overview

Civil and Commercial Private International Law

Digital Technologies and Private International Law

Business and Human Rights

Public Interest Litigation

International Litigation and Brexit

Collaborations

Artificial intelligence and Scots law: Transforming the future. RSE Small Research Grant - Dr Lorna Gillies, University of Dundee, with collaborator Dr Michiel Poesen, University of Aberdeen (award anouncement)

Funding and Grants

• Fellow of the KU Leuven Research Fund (2021-2022)
• Stanford Existential Risk Initiative (SERI) Summer Fellow (2021)
• Consultant for European Commission studies on the Brussels Ia Regulation and Rome II Regulation (JUDGTRUST; BIICL; Milieu)
• PhD Fellow at the Institute for Private International Law at KU Leuven (2017-2021)