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School of Law

Dr Daniele D'Alvia, PhD (London), LLM (London), MSc (Milan), GDL (London), MA (Rome)

Daniele

Lecturer in Banking and Finance Law

Email: d.dalvia@qmul.ac.uk
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-avv-daniele-d-alvia-182b1324/

Profile

Daniele D’Alvia is a Lecturer in Banking and Finance Law at CCLS – Queen Mary University of London, and an Associate Researcher at the European Banking Institute in Frankfurt. Prior to joining Queen Mary University of London, he was the Ronnie Warrington Scholar in Comparative Law at Birkbeck College, University of London, and he was the Module Convener of Business Law at Bayes Business School, City University of London, former Cass.

He is an internationally recognised expert on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, Corporate Finance Law, and Investment Banking Law. A pioneer in SPAC studies in law, author of the first book on SPACs ever published by Routledge in 2021, and award-winner of the Colin B. Picker Prize by the American Society of Comparative law.

At CCLS – Queen Mary University of London, he teaches in the areas of Corporate Finance Law, Mergers and Acquisitions, Investement Banking Law, International Finance and International Financial Regulation.

He has authored law review articles, books, and edited collections addressing issues ranging from payment systems, mobile payments, and CBDC to financial stability treats stemming from fintech and mutual or pension funds. His research is eclectic, and it takes into account issues concerning financial history as well as sociology and comparative law methodologies.

He is frequently mentioned on financial newspapers or interviewed on matters related to financial regulation, private equity and SPACs. He is also a Bloomberg Contributor in New York City.

He is an Italian Qualified Lawyer, and he has worked at international law firms such as Bonelli Erede, Dewey&Leboeuf LLP, and Deloitte LLP where he assisted clients in relation to M&As transactions, bond issuance, and IPOs. He has also worked for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in London in the Criminal Investigation Unit, and he has acted as consultant at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

He has been a visiting researcher in leading Universities and Institutions such as the Commercial Law Centre at Harris Manchester College University of Oxford, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), the University of Warwick, ESCP Business School, and SOLE 24 ORE Business School.

Undergraduate Teaching

Module Convener of Law for Accountants at Queen Mary University of London School of Business and Management.

Postgraduate Teaching

Research

I am working within a dedicated group of experts of the European Banking Institute focusing on CBDCs between Europe and the US.  Furthermore, I am also cooperating with the Graduate Center of the City Univeristy of New York with reference to a research project on venture capital and private equity.

Funded research

Private funding provided by Ellenoff Grossman and Schole LLP in New York City and GAMCO investors Inc. in New York City to research SPACs.

Works in progress and conference papers

  • Keynote. Presenting a paper titled ‘Private Cryptocurrencies Schemes and CDBC as a Possible Response”, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh. December 2023.
  • Keynote, Webinar Conference. Seminar in Applied Economics. Presenting a paper titled “From Darkness to Light: A Comparative Study of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies in the European Union, the UK, and the US”. Delivered at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, October 2023.
  • Keynote, The SPAC Conference. Presenting a paper titled “SPACs: London or Amsterdam?”. Delivered at the SPAC Conference in London organised by DealFlow, London, December 2022.
  • Keynote, Webinar Conference. Seminars in Applied Economics. Presenting a paper titled ‘Risk, Uncertainty, and the Market: A Re-thinking of Western and Islamic Finance’. Delivered at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, March 2022.
  • Speaker, Webinar Conference. CLC Corporate Law Conference on the Reform of the Listing Rules. Presenting a paper titled ‘SPACs: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’. Delivered at the University of Oxford, Oxford, January 2022.
  • Keynote, Webinar Conference. Presenting a paper titled ‘Da Wall Street a Piazza Affari: la SPAC come veicolo societario alternative al processo ordinario di quotazione. Profili giuridici’ [From Wall Street to Piazza Affari: the SPAC as the alternative investment vehicle to traditional IPO]. Delivered at the University of Siena for an Executive Course in Corporate Law, Siena, Italy, May 2021.
  • Keynote, Webinar Conference ‘Deconstructing SPACs in Corporate and Finance Law (FLE Webinar). Delivered at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, New York, US, December 2020.
  • Speaker, Webinar Conference ‘A regime fit for purpose? Corporate Governance and Insolvency in the 2020s’, sponsored by Liverpool John Moores University and the Society of Legal Scholars, Liverpool, UK, March 2021. Presenting a conference paper titled ‘Wrongful trading and emergency rules at the time of COVID-19: a comparison between Italian and English Law Insolvency Regimes’.
  • Speaker, Webinar Panel ‘La finanza Islamica in Occidente e la rinegoziazione dei contratti alla luce della Fase 3: opportunità e rischi’ [Islamic Finance in the West and the renegotiation of the agreements under the Phase 3: perspectives and risks], International Chamber of Commerce, Rome, Italy, June 2020.
  • ‘The new economy of financial systems towards the autopoiesis of financial markets’. Delivered at ‘Challenges and experiments in monetary sovereignty’, Harvard School of Law, Cambridge, U.S.. June 2018.
  • ‘Complex Financial Systems: on the autopoiesis of financial markets and the role of law in systemic failures’. Delivered at the ‘Complexity, Institutional and Legal Reform, and Rule of Law’, Loyola University of Chicago, Rome, Italy. December 2017.
  • ‘The remarkable story of SPACs between a legal standardised regulation and a standardisation by market practices’. Delivered at the ‘American Society of Comparative Law – 6th Annual Conference’, Koc University Law School, Istanbul, Turkey. April 2017.
  • ‘’Comparative Regulation of SPACs’. Delivered at the ‘The Future of Financial Law’, Institute of Law Jersey, Jersey, UK. March 2017.
  • Discussant, Panel ‘EU Agencies and Banking’ at ‘Constitutionality, powers and legitimacy of EU agencies or agency-like bodies’, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, November 2016.
  • Discussant, Roundtable ‘A juridical phenomenology of block-chain and associated technologies’ at Critical Legal Conference, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, September 2016.
  • ‘The financial law in Europe: a re-thinking of the role of law’. Delivered at the 4th Business Systems Laboratory International Symposium ‘Governing Business Systems. Theories and Challenges for Systems Thinking in Practice’, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania. August 2016.
  • Chair, Panel ‘Can the EU Regulate a Financial Crisis?’ at Law on Trial ‘The European Union at the Crossroads’, Birkbeck University of London, London, UK. June 2016.
  • ‘The subjectivity of financial risk and the obscurity of financial law: is there a new light?’. Delivered at ‘New Issues in Commercial Law’, Queen Mary University of London, UK. June 2016.
  • ‘The soft law approach to contemporary financial markets’. Delivered at ‘Crisis and Innovation in the European Union: beyond Populism and Managerlialism’, University of Warwick, UK. May 2016.
  • Keynote, Roundtable ‘Senegal Economic Forum’. Keynote on Mobile Payments in non-developing countries. Palazzo Ferraioli, Rome, Italy. November 2015.
  • ‘Mobile Network Based Payment Systems: Limits and Perspectives Between Competition Law and the Current European Regulatory Framework on Payment Services’. Delivered at the Jean Monnet Teaching Module ‘The Europeanisation of the payment system’, Autumn School II Edition, University of Siena, Siena, Italy. October 2015. 

Panels / Conferences organised

  • ‘Are SPACs the new IPO?’, Webinar, CCLS – Queen Mary University of London, London, UK. July 2021.
  • ‘Complex financial systems: re-generation (autopoiesis) and the role of law in systemic failures’ at Critical Legal Conference, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. September 2018.
  • ‘Islamic Finance: the Middle East, Malaysia, and the West’ at Law on Trial, Birkbeck University of London, London, UK. June 2017.
  • ‘Islamic Law: Theories and Practices’ at Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference ‘Legislation and the Role of the Judiciary’, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. September 2016.
  • ‘The Phenomenology of Financial Markets: a Philosophical Dialogue on Crisis and Banking Supervision” at Annual Postgraduate Conference, Birkbeck University of London, London, UK. May 2016.

Publications

Books

  • D’Alvia D., Nicolini M.. 2025. Global Legal Indicators and Comparative Law: the Factory of Indexes. Forthcoming Routledge.
  • D’Alvia D., 2023. The Speculator of Financial Markets: How Financial Innovation and Supervision Made the Modern World, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783031479007.
  • D’Alvia D., 2022. International Insolvency and Finance Law: Legal Constants in Times of Crisis. Routledge. ISBN 9781032107929.
  • D’Alvia D., 2021. Mergers, Acquisitions, and International Financial Regulation: Analysing Special Purpose Acquisition Companies. Routledge. ISBN 9780367609863.

Edited collection

  • D’Alvia D. 2025. Research Handbook on Corporate Finance Law. Forthcoming Edward Elgar.  
  • D’Alvia D., Lombardi E., Shachmurove Y, 2023. Alternative Acquisition Models and Financial Innovation: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies in Europe, and the Italian Legal Framework. Routledge. 

Selected reviewed journal articles

  • D’Alvia D., 2022. ‘From Darkness to Light: A Comparative Study of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies in Europe, the UK, and the US’ in The Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies, 201 – 238. ISSN 528-8870.
  • D’Alvia D., 2021. ‘Legal constants and the ‘constant’ outside of the law: mobile payments in comparative perspective under European Union Law’ in 28 (3) Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, 332-355. ISSN 2399-5548.
  • D’Alvia D. 2020. ‘Risk, Uncertainty, and the Market: a Re-thinking of Islamic and Western Finance’ in 16 (4) The International Journal of Law in Context, 339-352. ISSN 1744-5523.
  • D’Alvia D. 2020 (first online 2019). ‘The international financial regulation of SPACs between legal standardized regulation and standardization of market practices’ in 21 (2) Journal of Banking Regulation, 107-124. ISSN  1745-6452.
  • D’Alvia D. 2018. ‘Law and the Market: private actors and self-regulation “towards a new role of public international law”’ in 29 (6) European Business Law Review, 929-948. ISSN 0959-6941.

Selected chapters in edited collections

  • D’Alvia D., Morbee K, Olivares Caminal R., 2021. ‘PSD2, Brexit, and the Financial Regulation of Payment Systems in the UK’ in The Payment Services Directive II: A Commentary (G. Gimigliano, M. Bozina Beros eds.), Edward Elgar Commentaries Series.  ISBN 978-1-83910-567-8
  • D’Alvia D., 2018. ‘From public law to private law: the remarkable story of bona fides’ in The Future of the Commercial Contract in Scholarship and Law Reform: European and Comparative Perspectives (M. Heidemann, and J. Lee, eds.), Springer, 343-368. ISBN 978-3-319-95969-6
  • D’Alvia D., 2016. ‘Mobile Payments and Merger Regulation: a case law analysis’, in Bitcoin and Mobile Payments: Constructing a European Union Framework (G. Gimigliano eds.), Palgrave Macmillan, 251-267. ISBN 978-1-137-57511-1

Book review

  • D’Alvia D., 2022. ‘Founders without Limits: Dual-Class Stock and the Premium Tier of the London Stock Exchange’ in 33 (5) Business Law Review, 783-786.
  • D’Alvia D., 2020. ‘Carve-out M&A Transactions: A Practical Guide’ in 41 (1) Business Law Review, 36-36.
  • D’Alvia D., 2019. ‘Regulation and Supervision of the OTC Derivatives Market’ in 34 (3) Banking and Finance Law Review, 603-607.

Supervision

Regulation of Financial Markets including FinTech Law, Corporate Finance Law and Mergers, Acquisition and Takeovers Law.

Public Engagement

Public Mentions

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