Dr. Michael Leach

Dr. Michael (Mike) Leach is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Law & Governance at Tilburg Law School. Currently, his research focuses on topics related to law and the Anthropocene, agriculture and emissions trading, and legal applications of complexity theory. He completed his PhD in 2021 with a thesis that explored the work that the concept of the 'Rule of Law' has done for international development interventions since 1989. Prior to Tilburg, he pursued legal studies at Oxford, McGill and the University of Ottawa, and worked for three years in Afghanistan and Turkey (regarding Syria) as a legal consultant for a variety of DFID and BMZ-funded projects on the rule of law, subnational governance, bank privatization, and commercial law reform. Licensed to practice in the Province of Ontario, Canada, Mike worked as an associate lawyer at a boutique litigation firm in Toronto prior to his return to academia a decade ago.