Dr Michiel Poesen

Biography

Michiel is co-director of the Centre for Private International Law and Transnational Governance and lecturer of private international law. Previously, he lectured at Maastricht University, ELTE, and KU Leuven. He also was a postdoctoral fellow of the KU Leuven Research Fund. He held visiting positions at Singapore Management University (2023) and KU Leuven (2024).

He 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 Encyclopaedia 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, his 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.

He 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 Research Collaboration 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)