Current and Selected Foundational Research
Current Research
- RP Buckley and N Jevglevskaja, ‘Australia’s Consumer Data-Sharing Regime: A World-Leading Reform‘ (2022) University of New South Wales Law Journal (forthcoming).
- RP Buckley, N Jevglevskaja and S Farrell ‘Australia’s Data-Sharing Regime: Six Lessons for the World‘ (2021) King’s Law Journal (forthcoming).
- AN Didenko and RP Buckley, ‘Central Bank Digital Currencies as a Potential Response to Some Particularly Pacific Problems‘ (2021) UNSW Law Research Paper 21-66.
- DA Zetzsche, F Annunziata, DW Arner and RP Buckley, ‘The Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation (MICA) and the EU Digital Finance Strategy’ (2021) Capital Markets Law Journal (forthcoming).
- DW Arner, RP Buckley, DA Zetzsche and AM Dahdal, ‘Digital Finance and the COVID-19 Crisis’ (2021) 33(1) National Law School of India Review (forthcoming).
- AN Didenko, ‘A Better Model for Australia’s Enhanced FinTech Sandbox’, UNSW Law Journal (forthcoming, accepted 28 October 2020).
- AN Didenko and RP Buckley, ‘Cross-border Implications of Using Global Stablecoins and Sovereign Digital Currencies in International Payments’ in B Mercurio (ed), Empowering Transformation: Connectivity and Cross-Border Data Flows (forthcoming).
- RP Buckley, DW Arner, DA Zetzsche, AN Didenko and LJ van Romburg, ‘Sovereign Digital Currencies: Reshaping the Future of Payments and Money’ (2021) 15(1) Journal of Payments Systems and Strategies 7–22.
- RP Buckley, DA Zetzsche, DW Arner and BW Tang, ‘Regulating Artificial Intelligence in Finance: Putting the Human in the Loop’ (2021) 43(1) Sydney Law Review 43–81.
- RP Buckley, DA Zetzsche, DW Arner and R Veidt, ‘FinTech, Financial Inclusion and the UN Sustainable Development Goals’ in Iris Chiu and Gudula Deipenbrock (eds), The Routledge Handbook on FinTech and the Law: Regulatory, Supervisory, Policy and Other Legal Challenges (Routledge, 2021).
- DA Zetzsche, WA Birdthistle, DW Arner and RP Buckley, ‘Digital Finance Platforms: Towards a New Regulatory Paradigm’ (2020) 23(1) University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law 273–339.
- DA Zetzsche, DW Arner and RP Buckley, ‘Decentralized Finance’ (2020) 6(2) Journal of Financial Regulation 172–203.
Selected Foundational Research
This Laureate project grew out of research that commenced in 2013 and was funded by a series of research grants from the Centre for International Finance and Regulation and the Australian Research Council Linkage Projects scheme, in each case supported financially and in other invaluable ways by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
This section highlights some of the foundational research from 2013 to early 2020. This research underpins much of what we are doing today, and may be of interest to other scholars and practitioners. We produced much more research than what is reproduced here – these are the highlights.
This foundational research has been classified into the following categories – FinTech, RegTech, Cryptocurrency, Financial Inclusion, Mobile Money, Financial System Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity.
These classifications are of necessity a little arbitrary, and some articles could have appeared in a number of categories, but we hope this classification assists in directing readers to their areas of interest.
FinTech

- DA Zetzsche, RP Buckley, DW Arner and L Fohr, ‘The ICO Gold Rush: It’s a Scam, It’s a Bubble, It’s a Super Challenge for Regulators’ (2019) 60(2) Harvard International Law Journal 267–315.
- AN Didenko, ‘Regulating FinTech: Lessons from Africa’(2018) 19(2) San Diego International Law Journal 311–369.
- DW Arner, J Barberis and RP Buckley, ‘The Evolution of FinTech: A New Post-Crisis Paradigm?’ (2016) 47(4) Georgetown Journal of International Law 1271–1319.
RegTech
- RP Buckley, DA Zetzsche, DW Arner and RH Weber, ‘The Road to RegTech: The (Astonishing) Example of the European Union’ (2020) 21 Journal of Banking Regulation 26–36.
- J Barberis, DW Arner and RP Buckley (eds), The REGTECH Book: The Financial Technology Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs and Visionaries in Regulation (Wiley, 2019) 1–372.
- DW Arner, J Barberis and RP Buckley, ‘FinTech, RegTech, and the Reconceptualization of Financial Regulation’ (2017) 37(3) Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business 371–413.
Data-Driven Finance
- DW Arner, DA Zetzche, RP Buckley and RH Weber, ‘The Future of Data-Driven Finance and RegTech: Lessons from EU Big Bang II’ (2020) 25(2) Stanford Journal of Law Business and Finance 245–288.
- DA Zetzsche, RP Buckley, DW Arner and JN Barberis, ‘From FinTech to TechFin: The Regulatory Challenges of Data-Driven Finance’ (2018) 14(2) New York University Journal of Law & Business 393–446.
Cryptocurrencies and Central Bank Digital Currencies
- DA Zetzsche, RP Buckley and DW Arner, ‘Regulating Libra: The Transformative Potential of Facebook’s Cryptocurrency and Possible Regulatory Responses’ (2021) 41(1) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 80–113.
- AN Didenko and RP Buckley, ‘The Evolution of Currency: Cash to Cryptos to Sovereign Digital Currencies’ (2019) 42(4) Fordham International Law Journal 1041–1094.
- DW Arner, RP Buckley, DA Zetzsche, B Zhao, AN Didenko, C-Y Park and E Pashoska, ‘Policy and Regulatory Challenges of Distributed Ledger Technology and Digital Assets in Asia’ in Chris Brummer (ed), Cryptoassets: Legal, Regulatory, and Monetary Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 2019) 263–306.

Financial Inclusion
- DW Arner, RP Buckley, DA Zetzsche and R Veidt, ‘Sustainability, FinTech and Financial Inclusion’ (2020) 21 European Business Organisation Law Review 7–35.
- DA Zetzsche, RP Buckley and DW Arner, ‘FinTech for Financial Inclusion: Driving Sustainable Growth’ in J Walker, A Pekmezovic and G Walker (eds), Sustainable Development Goals: Harnessing Business to Achieve the SDGs through Finance, Technology, and Law Reform (Wiley, 2019) 179–203.
- C-Y Tsang, L Malady and RP Buckley, ‘Promoting Financial Inclusion by Encouraging the Payment of Interest on E-Money’ (2017) 40(4) UNSW Law Journal 1558–1572.
- RP Buckley and S Webster, ‘FinTech in Developing Countries: Charting New Customer Journeys’ (2016) 44 Journal of Financial Transformation, 151–159.
Regulatory Sandboxes and Innovation Hubs
- RP Buckley, DW Arner, R Veidt and DA Zetzsche, ‘Building FinTech Ecosystems: Regulatory Sandboxes, Innovation Hubs and Beyond’ (2020) 61 Washington University Journal of Law & Policy 55–98.
- RP Buckley, DW Arner, DA Zetzsche and EC Gibson, ‘Building Australia’s FinTech Ecosystem: Innovation Hubs for a Competitive Advantage’ (2020) 31 Journal of Banking and Finance: Law and Practice 133–140.
- DA Zetzsche, RP Buckley, DW Arner & JN Barberis, ‘Regulating a Revolution: From Regulatory Sandboxes to Smart Regulation’ (2017) 23(1) Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law 31–103.
Infrastructure, Blockchain and Regulation Generally
- RP Buckley, DW Arner, DA Zetzsche and E Selga, ‘TechRisk’ [2020] Singapore Journal of Legal Studies 35–62.
- F Panisi, RP Buckley and DW Arner, ‘Blockchain and Public Companies: A Revolution in Share Ownership Transparency, Proxy Voting and Corporate Governance?’ (2019) 2(2) Stanford Journal of Blockchain Law & Policy 188–220.
- DW Arner, DA Zetzsche, RP Buckley and JN Barberis, ‘The Identity Challenge in Finance: From Analogue Identity to Digitized Identification to Digital KYC Utilities’ (2019) 20 European Business Organisation Law Review 55–80.
- DA Zetzsche, RP Buckley and DW Arner, ‘The Distributed Liability of Distributed Ledgers: Legal Risks of Blockchain’ (2018) 4 University of Illinois Law Review 1361–1407.

- L Malady, RP Buckley, AN Didenko and CY Tsang, ‘A Regulatory Diagnostic Toolkit for Digital Financial Services in Emerging Markets’ (2018) 34(1) Banking & Finance Law Review 1–30.
- RP Buckley and I Mas, ‘The Coming of Age of Digital Payments as a Field of Expertise’ [2016] (1) Journal of Law, Technology & Policy 71–87.
- W Zhou, DW Arner and RP Buckley, ‘Regulation of Digital Financial Services in China: Last Mover Advantage’ (2015) 8(1) Tsinghua China Law Review 25–62.
Roadmaps and Toolkits for Regulators
- DA Zetzsche, DW Arner, RP Buckley and A Kaiser-Yücel, ‘Fintech Toolkit: Smart Regulatory and Market Approaches to Financial Technology Innovation’ (Report, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, 1 April 2020) 1–61.
- L Malady, RP Buckley and CY Tsang, ‘Regulatory Handbook: The Enabling Regulation of Digital Financial Services’ (Research Paper, Centre for International Finance and Regulation (CIFR), UNCDF, University of New South Wales, December 2015) 1–125.
Regulating Mobile Money
- D Ramos, J Solana, RP Buckley and J Greenacre, ‘Protecting Mobile Money Customer Funds in Civil Law Jurisdictions’ (2016) 65(3) International & Comparative Law Quarterly 705–739.
- E Gibson, F Lupo-Pasini and RP Buckley, ‘Regulating Digital Financial Services Agents in Developing Countries to Promote Financial Inclusion’ [2015] Singapore Journal of Legal Studies 26–45.
- J Greenacre, RP Buckley and L Malady, ‘The Regulation of Mobile Money in Malawi’ (2015) 14(3) Washington University Global Studies Law Review 435–497.
- RP Buckley and L Malady, ‘The New Regulatory Frontier: Building Consumer Demand for Digital Financial Services — Part II’ (2015) 132(1) Banking Law Journal 35–53.
- RP Buckley and L Malady, ‘The New Regulatory Frontier: Building Consumer Demand for Digital Financial Services — Part I‘ (2014) 131(10) Banking Law Journal 834–846.
- J Greenacre and RP Buckley, ‘Using Trusts to Protect Mobile Money Customers’ [2014] Singapore Journal of Legal Studies 59–78.
Cybersecurity in Financial Regulation

- AN Didenko, ‘Cybersecurity Regulation in the Financial Sector: Prospects of Legal Harmonization in the European Union and Beyond’ (2020) 25(1) Uniform Law Review, 125-167.