Robert Herian

Robert joined Exeter Law School as an Associate Professor in February 2022 after nine years at the Open University Law School.

Research Interests
Robert’s current research focuses on speculations and intersections of law, technology, and data using psychoanalysis, critical theory, political economy, and philosophy.

Select Outputs

R. Herian. “Techno-Legal Supertoys: Smart Contracts and the Fetishization of Legal Certainty”, in P. Hunn (eds). Smart Legal Contracts Computable Law in Theory and Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.

R. Herian. Capitalism and the Equity Fetish Desire, Property, Justice, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.

R. Herian. Data New Trajectories in Law, Routledge, 2021.

R. Herian. “Technology with legal education”, in Wall IR, Middleton F, Shah S (eds.) The Critical Legal Pocketbook, Counter Press, 2021.

R. Herian. “Blockchain, GDPR, and fantasies of data sovereignty“. Law, Innovation and Technology, 12(1), 156-174, 2020.

R. Herian. “Smart contracts: a remedial analysis“, Information & Communications Technology Law, 30(1), 17-34, 2020.

R. Herian. Regulating Blockchain Critical Perspectives in Law and Technology, Routledge, 2018.

R. Herian. “Taking Blockchain Seriously” Law and Critique, 29(2), 163-171, 2018.

Select Conference Appearances

“Life, Technology, and Capital” – Critical Legal Conference, University of Dundee, September 2021.

“Ledger Societies and Rituals of Verification” – Law & Technology PGR Conference (online), University of Sheffield, December 2020

“Rituals of verification” – Global Norms in a Divided World Symposium, Queen’s University Belfast, 27-28 February 2020.

“Being in data” – IGLP Idea Lab: The Fate of Law as Technology, Harvard University, June 2019.

“Smart contract performance and the rise of restitution” – SLSA annual conference, Leeds University, April 2019.

“Fantasies of control” – American Society of Law Culture and the Humanities Conference, Carleton University, Montreal, 22-23 March 2019.

“Blockchain and fantasies of data sovereignty” – Critical Legal Conference, The Open University, 6-8 September 2018.

“Blockchain for [no] good: technology, regulation and the ethics of political economy” – American Society of Law Culture and the Humanities Conference, Georgetown University, Washington DC, March 2018.

Select Media Appearances

Desire Lines on the Ruya Maps Podcast, September 2019.

Blockchains, Fact and Fiction: a Legal Perspective, YouTube, 2 September 2019.

Regulating blockchain – critical perspectives, YouTube, 21 May 2018.

Email Robert | Visit Robert’s University of Exeter Law School Profile