Welcome!

To all those reading this I am David Gibbs; I am a Lecturer in Law at the University of East Anglia.

I created this blog as a general out-let of ideas for my research, as well as keeping those interested up-to-date on my research and general interests.

I completed my PhD thesis at the University of East Anglia in 2014. The thesis was recommended for the award of PhD with no corrections. My external examiner was Prof. Simon Deakin (Cambridge) and internal examiner was Prof. Morten Hviid.
My PhD research centred on directors' duties and company law. The thesis was titled 'Non-Executive Self-Interest: Fiduciary Duties and Corporate Governance'. It was a doctrinal and empirical study on whether self-interest was suitably controlled amongst non-executive directors.

My supervisors were Prof. Mathias Siems, Prof. Duncan Sheehan, Dr. Sara Connolly and Dr. Rob Heywood

All opinions of any existing or future blogpost are my own. They do not necessarily represent the views of any of my associated institutions.
ORCID 0000-0002-6596-8536



Thursday 11 November 2010

Conflicts research presented at UEA research seminar series

Yesterday evening in between talking to potential students at the Postgraduate open day at UEA I presented my work on conflicts of interest, which I have blogged about previously. The slides from the presentation are available here.
Duncan Sheehan and David Mead provided me with some interesting insight that I will investigate further.

Duncan pointed out understanding the difference between a conflict of interest and a conflict of duties and what the effect and differences of the two where for a director's liability. He mentioned conflicts of duties had rarely been looked, although there is some work out there by Matthew Conaglen.

David also highlighted the actual wording of s175 Duty to avoid a conflict of interest:

(1) A director of a company must avoid a situation in which he has, or can have, a direct or indirect interest that conflicts, or possibly may conflict, with the interests of the company.
(2) This applies in particular to the exploitation of any property, information or opportunity (and it is immaterial whether the company could take advantage of the property, information or opportunity).

The exact wording "must" under a literal interpretation could restrict a director from ever serving on more than one board in the same sector/industry. This wording however, may tie in to the understanding of the difference that Duncan raised between conflicts of interest or duties.

Watch this space for further updates on this matter in the coming weeks.

I am now currently preparing for my next presentation to the law in society group in Derby next week as well as preparing for the undergraduate seminars on Directors' Duties.

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