Aaron Taylor
Staff details
I'm a barrister in full-time practice at Fountain Court Chambers. My practice covers art law, commercial disputes, banking and financial services, energy, aviation, civil fraud and business crime.
My main academic interest is in the law relating to financial wrongdoing, from commercial fraud to the criminal and regulatory law governing bribery, market abuse, and money laundering.
I'm also interested in the market in art and antiquities - including attribution and authenticity in art sales, the law of auctions, and combatting fraud and money laundering in the art market - and in the legal questions raised by new technologies such as blockchain contracts and cryptoassets.
I teach a range of topics across the LLB Law programme - including the economic torts, equitable and contractual remedies, and criminal fraud - and lead a branch of the Department's 'Law and Policy' Clinic, on the law relating to fraud and corruption.
Academic qualifications
- BA History, University of Bristol (First; top of year) 2013
- BA (MA) Law, St Edmund's College, Cambridge (Double First) 2015
- Bachelor of Civil Law (postgraduate), Keble College, Oxford (Distinction) 2016
Teaching and Supervision
Further profile content
Featured publications
2020:
‘Civil Bribery’ in Lissack and Horlick on Bribery (LexisNexis, 2020) (with Nico Leslie)
An overview of the law of civil bribery: book chapter in the leading practitioner text on bribery
2019:
'Concurrent Duties' (2019) 82 MLR 17
Offers an account of the doctrine of concurrent liability in private law
2019:
'In search of the ratio decidendi' (2019) 135 LQR 556
Case note on R (Youngsam) v Parole Board [2019] EWCA CIV 229, discussing the doctrine of precedent in English law
2019:
‘Avoiding blockchain contracts’ (2019) JIBFL 586 (with Nik Yeo)
Considers whether - and if so how - the doctrine of recission might apply to contracts on the blockchain
2017:
'Interpretation of Industry-Standard Contracts' (2017) LMCLQ 261
Considers the principles that should apply to the interpretation of industry-standard forms of contract
Professional projects
I am the founding editor of Financial Wrongs, an online resource and blog on the law relating to fraud, financial crime, and corruption.
I'm also a member of the Serious Fraud Office 'C Panel' of Counsel authorise to be instructed by the SFO on international proceeds of crime cases.
From October 2018 to March 2019, I was a Judicial Assistant at the Commercial Court (a branch of the High Court) in London. I was Judicial Assistant to Mr Justice Teare for the trial of Danilina v Chernukhin [2019] EWHC 173 (Comm) and several shorter hearings, and to Mr Justice Butcher for the trial of TGTL v CATS North Sea [2019] EWHC 1220 (Comm).
Pro Bono
I chair the trustees of Food Behind Bars, the UK's only charity devoted to improving the quality of food served in prisons in England and Wales.
I'm a panel member of Advocate (formerly the Bar Pro Bono Unit).
