Name
Dr Colin King
What is your current position?
I am Reader in Law at IALS.
What is your connection with IALS?
I joined IALS as Reader in Law and Director of Postgraduate Research Studies in October 2019. I am the founding director of the Centre for Financial Law, Regulation & Compliance.
I currently supervise three PhD students here at IALS – on anti-money laundering law and regulation; child defendants in Pakistan; and judicial independence in Sierra Leone.
What research are you currently conducting?
I am currently working on two projects:
- Implementation of anti-money laundering regulations in the property market, with specific emphasis on the ‘view from the other side’ (ie how estate agents implement regulations in practice); and
- Analysis of non-conviction based asset forfeiture (aka civil recovery) in Ireland and the UK.
Why is that research important?
‘Dirty money’ is regarded as a national security threat, as evident in various risk or threat assessments from the Home Office and other authorities. Equally, there are various proclamations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) about money laundering and efforts to tackle it. My research projects are providing new, empirical insights into the operation of the law in practice using semi-structured expert interviews.
My research has attracted interest from the likes of the Home Office; the Home Affairs Select Committee, Proceeds of Crime Inquiry; the Law Commission; the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security; and the British Columbia ‘Cullen Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in BC’.