About me

Jo is a professor of international commercial finance law, having joined LSE in September 2008. Her current and ongoing research interests relate to the use of private law in the international markets, with a particular focus on the derivatives markets, the use of standard form contracts and the resilience of financial market infrastructure. Recent projects have included a book published by Cambridge University Press on the role of the courts in the global financial markets and several studies into default management and recovery/resolution in the context of CCPs (a type of financial market infrastructure). In 2022, it was announced that Jo’s book ‘The Financial Courts’ was joint winner of the Main Book Prize awarded by the Inner Temple (joint with Professor Neil Duxbury’s book, ‘The Intricacies of Dicta and Dissent’), which is awarded on a triennial basis in recognition of books ‘which make an outstanding contribution to the understanding of law as administered in England and Wales’ (more details about the prize here).

Jo has a PhD from the University of London, a LLM degree from the University of Pennsylvania where she was a Thouron scholar, and a BA(Hons) from the University of Oxford. She was awarded a Modern Law Review Scholarship during her PhD. Before undertaking her PhD, she qualified as a solicitor and practised in a City law firm. Jo teaches various financial, banking and commercial law subjects and is a PhD supervisor. She has won several LSE awards for teaching and education.

Administrative support: Law.Reception@lse.ac.uk

Private law dimension to global financial markets
OTC derivatives, CCP clearing, EMIR and G20 reforms
Empirical research into use of transnational standardised contracts
Role of the courts and dispute resolution in the global financial markets

The Financial Courts: Adjudicating Disputes in Derivatives Markets (Cambridge University Press, 2020)

In The Financial Courts, Jo Braithwaite analyses thirty years of cases involving the global derivatives markets, exploring the nature of these legal disputes and assessing their impact on financial markets and on commercial law more broadly. Weaving together this substantial body of cases with theoretical insights drawn from the growing literature on the internationalisation of financial law, Braithwaite offers readers a detailed and highly original contribution to the debate about the role of private law in international financial markets. This important work should be read by lawyers, economists and regulators in the field.

click here for publisher's site

J. Braithwaite and D. Murphy, 'Client Clearing in the EU: Challenges and Policy Responses in OTC Derivatives Client Clearing' in Jens-Hinrich Binder and Paolo Saguato (eds.) Financial Market Infrastructures: Law and Regulation (OUP, 2021)
'Take on Me: OTC Derivatives Client Clearing in the European Union' LSE Law Working Paper Series 07/2020 (with David Murphy)
'Improving resolvability: partial property transfers and central counterparties' Capital Markets Law Journal (2019) (with David Murphy)
'Thirty years of ultra vires: Local authorities, national courts and the global derivatives markets' (2018) Current Legal Problems (OUP)
'Get the balance right: private rights and public policy in the post-crisis regime for OTC derivatives' Capital Markets Law Journal (2017) (with David Murphy)
'CCPs and the Law of Default Management' (2017) 17(2) Journal of Corporate Law Studies 291-325 (with David Murphy)
'Springwell-watch: New Insights Into the Nature of Contractual Estoppel' Law, Society and Economy Working Paper Series 12/2017
'Central Counterparties (CCPs) and the law of default management' Journal of Corporate Law Studies (2016)
'The Dilemma of Client Clearing in the OTC Derivatives Markets' European Business Organization Law Review (2016)
'Got to be certain: The legal framework for CCP default management processes' (2016) Bank of England Financial Stability Paper 37
'The origins and implications of contractual estoppel' (2016) 13(2) Law Quarterly Review 120-147
'Legal Perspectives on Client Clearing' LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series, 14-2015
'The impact of crises by way of the courts' Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law (2014) 29 (3) pp.147-151
'Law after Lehmans' LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series, 11-2014
'Private Law and Financial Crises' (2013) 13(2)Journal of Corporate Law Studies 361-399 (with M. Bridge)
'OTC derivatives, the courts and regulatory reform' Capital Markets Law Journal (2012)
'Standard form contracts as transnational law: Evidence from the derivatives markets' (2012) 75(5) MLR 779-805 [winner of the MLR Wedderburn prize in 2013 (Joint with Dr Kirsty Hughes, University of Cambridge) see http://www.modernlawreview.co.uk/wedderburn.asp]
'Private Law and the Public Sector's Central Counterparty Prescription for the Derivatives Markets' LSE Law, Society and Economy Working Paper Series, WPS 02-2011 May 2011
'The inherent limits of ‘legal devices’: Lessons for the public sector’s central counterparty prescription for the OTC derivatives markets' (2011) 12(1) European Business Organization Law Review 87-119.
'Diversity staff and the dynamics of diversity policymaking in large law firms' Legal Ethics Vol 13(2) (winter 2010) pp 142-162.
'The strategic use of demand side diversity pressure on the solicitors' profession.' Journal of Law and Society 37(3) JLS (September 2010) 442-465
'Kenji Yoshino, Covering: The hidden assault on our civil rights' (2008) 71(4) Modern Law Review 656

Jo is a qualified solicitor (non-practising) and has been involved in a variety of pro bono activities in the U.K. and U.S.
Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple
member of the UK Selection Committee for the Thouron Award
member of the Editorial Committee of the Modern Law Review

LL4F2 The Law and Practice of International Finance

LL4Z9 Banking Law

Professor Jo Braithwaite

Professor of Law

LSE Law School

About me

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