Professor Eva Micheler

Eva Micheler joined Merton College as the Travers Smith Professor of Corporate Finance Law in September 2026, following a career spent principally at the Law School of the London School of Economics, where she served as Professor and directed the Law and Financial Markets Project. She trained in both the Austrian and English legal traditions, holding a Doctorate of Law from the University of Vienna, a Habilitation from the Vienna University of Economics, and both a Magister Juris and a Master of Letters from the University of Oxford. 

Her research addresses corporate law theory, advancing a modern statement of real entity theory. She further studies the law of investment securities, with particular attention to the gap between the theoretical promise of digital and distributed ledger technology and the realities their implementation. 

She has advised the European Commission's Expert Group on Corporate Governance and the European Securities and Markets Authority, and has held visiting professorships at the National University of Singapore and Singapore Management University. 

Her scholarship, including her monograph on real entity theory, has been cited by the UK Supreme Court and the highest courts of Australia and Austria.

Current research

Her current research extends real entity theory to questions of legal personhood more broadly, including a co-edited volume, Legal Personhood in Private Law (CUP, 2027), where her contributions focuses on the legal status of unincorporated associations. She continues her long-standing effort to bring the conceptual resources of corporate law theory to bear on the practical challenges raised by the digitisation of financial markets.

Publications

1. Oxford Handbook of Digital Assets and the Law (editing with Jason Allen, Simon Gleeson, and Peter Hunn) (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)
2. Woke Capitalism (editing with Victoria Barnes, Jonathan Hardman, and Sally Wheeler) (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming)
3. Legal Personhood in Private Law (editing with Christopher Essert (University of Toronto) and Paul Miller (Notre Dame)), (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)
4. Foundations of Decentralized Organizations: Blockchain and the Future of Corporate Law, edited with Kevin Werbach and Bianca Kramer both of Wharton Business School (Oxford University Press 2026)
5. An Institutional Theory of the Firm (special collection of the Journal of Corporate Law Studies, edited with David Gindis (Warwick))
6. Company Law – A Real Entity Theory (OUP 2021), cited by the Australian High Court in Productivity Partners Pty Ltd (trading as Captain Cook College) v ACCC (2023) 297 FCR 180
7. Property in Securities – a Comparative Study (CUP 2007) (244 pages)
8. Book on the legal treatment of investment securities in a paperless environment entitled: Wertpapierrecht zwischen Schuld- und Sachenrecht, zu einer kapitalmarktrechtlichen Theorie des Wertpapierrechts (Springer Verlag Vienna 2004) (German) (421 pages)
9. Joint Ventures in English and German Law (Hart Publishing 2000) (edited with Dan Prentice) (181 pages)
10. Book on the legal status of employed scientists and researchers in contractual as well as collective labour law entitled: (Schein-) Werkverträge, Kettenarbeitsverhältnisse, kollektive Rechtsgestaltung und betriebliche Mitbestimmung bei Wissenschaftern (Linde Verlag Vienna 1996) (German) (132 pages) co-author R Peschek, 50% is attributable to Eva Micheler
11. Book on the Russian joint stock company entitled: Die Russische Aktiengesellschaft (Servicefachverlag Vienna 1993) (German) (106 pages) co-authors: E Puseizer and V Kozak, 40% is attributable to Eva Micheler