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Muriel Renaudin

Dr Muriel Renaudin

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Media commentator
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Available for postgraduate supervision

Teams and roles for Muriel Renaudin

Overview

I joined Cardiff Law School as a lecturer in November 2011. I am the Programme Director for the LLB Law & French and the coordinator for the School's academic exchanges with the French Universities of Rennes and Toulouse. I am also a regular visiting lecturer of these partner universities. I am the module leader for French Law and Commercial Law at an undergraduate level and for Comparative Commercial Law at a postgraduate level. My general research interests lie in commercial law, comparative law and secured credit law.

I gained my PhD entitled ‘Secured Transactions Law Reform and the Modernisation of Personal Property Law' from Swansea University in 2011. I completed an LL.M (with Distinction) in International Commercial Law from Swansea in 2006. I also studied as an Erasmus student at Cardiff Law School and obtained a Certificate in Legal Studies in 2004. I completed my undergraduate studies in law in France where I gained a Licence en Droit and a Maîtrise de Droit des Affaires from the Faculté de Droit et de Science Politique, Université de Rennes in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

My research focuses on the future of commercial law and private law in the transition to sustainable and circular economies. I am particularly interested in how traditional concepts of property and ownership shape the use, circulation, and stewardship of resources, and whether these concepts remain fit for purpose in the face of contemporary environmental challenges. Through comparative analysis of Civil Law and Common Law traditions, my work examines the capacity of legal systems to support legal and economic transformation towards greater sustainability.

Publication

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2019

2018

2017

2015

2014

2013

2007

Articles

Book sections

Conferences

Research

My research background lies in commercial law, in particular the law of personal property and the law of secured transactions. My research makes extensive use of comparative law methods to explore opportunities for legal reforms in jurisdictions which belong to dissimilar legal cultures. I am particularly interested in researching how the regional and global international regulatory frameworks operate (e.g. approximation of law, regulatory competition and legal transplants) and their impact on commercial law reforms.

I have recently worked on a comparative law research project on secured credit law in collaboration with Dr. Alisdair McPherson from the University of Aberdeen and Prof. Dr. Caroline Rupp from the University of Würzburg. The project examines floating charges and their functional equivalents in a comparative law perspective.  This project enabled a greater understanding of the nature of floating charges, as well as their historical and present-day value and significance. The project raises a number of comparative law issues (for example, the floating charge provides an interesting case study of a legal transplant across different legal cultures). In addition, the project allowed for conclusions regarding the extent to which there has been convergence or divergence of the law in this area. It may provide starting points for future legislative projects or even harmonisation in this area of law. My research contribution on the functional equivalent of the floating charge in France is entitled The English floating charge and the conceptualisation of a French global security. and was published in Macpherson, A. , Rapatz, C. S. and Albrechts, C. eds. Floating Charges in Comparative Perspective. Law 2025 Edward Elgar Publishing. , pp.253-283

I have also contributed to the research activities of the London Centre for Commercial and Financial Law (LCF) which is looking at the future of the commercial contract in scholarship and law reform. I delivered two conference papers and published a peer reviewed book section entitled ‘Approximation of secured credit laws in global economies: methodological challenges’. Following my research paper on the future of commercial law reforms post-Brexit presented at the LCF annual conference in 2019, I  finalised a book chapter entitled “The Consequences of Brexit on Regulatory Competition and the Approximation of Commercial Law”. This chapter critically discusses the legal consequences of Brexit for the future of legal reforms of the laws governing cross border commercial transactions for both the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU). In particular, it investigates the extent to which Brexit may impact the key dynamics of European economic integration and the extent to which it may affect future commercial law reforms in the EU and the UK.

My current research programme investigates the future of commercial law and private law in the context of sustainability transitions. Building on my expertise in comparative commercial law, I examine how foundational concepts of property and ownership shape the use, circulation, and governance of resources, and how these concepts can be reimagined to support the transition towards more sustainable and circular economies.

Through comparative analysis of Civil Law and Common Law systems, I explore the capacity of commercial law and property law to respond to pressing environmental challenges. My work seeks to develop new theoretical and practical frameworks for understanding ownership, control, and value creation in a world increasingly shaped by resource scarcity, environmental degradation, and sustainability imperatives. This research positions private law not merely as a mechanism for allocating rights and risks, but as a potentially significant component of broader societal and economic transformations towards sustainability.

Teaching

I am the module leader in the following modules:

Undergraduate 

Commercial law

French Law I Introduction to French public law

French Law II Introduction to French private law

Postgraduate 

Comparative commercial law

Biography

I completed my Undergraduate studies in law in France where I gained a Licence en Droit and a Maîtrise de Droit des Affaires from the Faculté de Droit et de Science Politique, Université de Rennes in 2002 and 2003 respectively. After graduating in France, I studied as an exchange student at Cardiff Law School and obtained a Certificate in Legal Studies in 2004.

I completed my Postgraduate Legal education in the UK. I obtained an LL.M (with Distinction) in International Commercial Law in Swansea University in 2006 and I gained a PhD entitled ‘Secured Transactions Law Reform and the Modernisation of Personal Property Law' also from Swansea University in 2011.

I joined Cardiff School of Law and Politics as a lecturer in November 2011. I am the Programme Director for the LLB Law & French and the coordinator for the School's academic exchanges with the French Universities of Rennes and Toulouse. I am also a regular visiting lecturer of these partner universities.

Honours and awards

  • UK Academic Award (prize awarded to the Law and French programme) from the Franco-British Lawyers Society (£1000).
  • Swansea University Full Research Studentship-Funding Award for Duration of PhD (Swansea University).
  • Swansea University Scholarship for Master Tuition Fees (Swansea University).

Professional memberships

  • Member of the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS)
  • Representative for Cardiff Law School of the British Association of Comparative Law (BACL)
  • Associate of Cardiff and District Law Society
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Academic positions

  • 2011 – present: Lecturer, Cardiff University, School of Law and Politics.
  • 2010-2011: Law Tutor, Cardiff University, School of Law and Politics.
  • 2007-2010: Law Tutor Swansea University, School of Law.

News articles

The Franco British Lawyer’s Society (FBLS) has awarded Cardiff’s Law and French (LLB) programme with this year’s UK Academic Prize.

Law and French programme recognised in Franco British prize

26 January 2021

The Franco British Lawyer’s Society (FBLS) has awarded Cardiff’s Law and French (LLB) programme with this year’s UK Academic Prize.

Contact Details

Email [email protected]
Telephone +44 29208 74339
Campuses Law Building, Room 2.49, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX

Research themes

Specialisms

  • Commercial law
  • Comparative law
  • corporate sustainability