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Professor Kern Alexander
Kern is Professor of International and European Financial Law and Regulation at the University of Zurich Faculty of Law. He also holds a part-time Full Professor appointment in International and European Banking Law at the European University Institute’s Robert Shuman Centre for Advanced Studies (Florence, Italy). His professorship at the University of Zurich is a core professorial chair at the Faculty of Law. He is the author of many books and articles analyzing the empirical and theoretical dimensions of international and comparative banking, financial and corporate law/governance and its implementation into national legal and regulatory systems. His research currently explores the impact of financial regulation, sustainability and technology on the governance of financial institutions and the implications for international commercial and financial law and regulation. He has lead research projects funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) on sovereign debt restructuring and collective action clauses in bond contracts and by the Swiss National Science Foundation on Central Banking law and economic sanctions. He has also conducted industry-sponsored research addressing the fiduciary duty of banks and asset managers to conduct suitability assessments of their beneficiaries and customers about environmental and social sustainability risks.
He is the author of many research articles and books, including Principles of Banking Regulation (Cambridge University Press, 2019) and Brexit and Financial Service (co-authored, 2018). He has also authored commissioned reports for the G20, the United Nations, the European Parliament and the European Commission on central banking, financial regulation and environmental sustainability. His 2014 report, ‘Stability and Sustainability in Banking Reform: Are Environmental Risks Missing in Basel III?’, is widely cited and has influenced the bank risk governance debate. He is a graduate of Cornell, Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
Kern was born on 9 July 1968. He was educated at Cornell University (AB Magna cum laude – History and Government), Oxford University (Master of Studies in Modern European History – Distinction), and Cambridge University (Master of Philosophy in International Relations and Associate Bachelor’s Degree in Law (BA Honours in Law), and the University of London, School of Advanced Study (PhD in Law) where he was a FA Mann Scholar.
Kern is the Director of the University of Zurich Competence Center for Sustainable Finance (CCFS). https://www.sustainablefinance.uzh.ch/en/about/governance.html The CCFS is an interdisciplinary network of academics, policymakers, and practitioners whose research addresses the challenges of building a more environmentally and socially sustainable financial system. He is also the Founding Director of the Society of Commercial and Financial Law https://www.scfl.ch/
