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Wendy Kennett

Dr Wendy Kennett

Professor of Law

School of Law and Politics

Email
KennettW@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 75482
Campuses
Law Building, Room 0.12, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I hold a Chair in the School of Law and Politics, and have research interests in Comparative Law and European Civil Procedure. These interests combine in my work comparing the institutions responsible for the enforcement of judgments in various European countries, and more generally on debt recovery.

My work on civil procedure and enforcement is internationally recognised. For example, I contributed to the ELI/UNIDROIT Model European Rules of Civil Procedure and am currently participating in a global project on Comparative Procedural Law and Justice managed by the Max-Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law.

Within the UK, I have participated in work to reform the law on civil enforcement and to raise standards in the enforcement industry, including the co-ordination of responses to consultation papers (as Chair of the Bailiff Law Reform Group) and membership of the Compliance, Adjudication and Review of Enforcement (CARE) Panel established by the Civil Enforcement Association (CIVEA).

Publication

2021

2020

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2003

  • Kennett, W. 2003. Enforcement: general report. In: Storme, M. ed. Procedural Laws in Europe. Towards Harmonisation. Antwerpen/Apeldoorn: Maklu, pp. 81-111.

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1993

1992

1987

Articles

Book sections

Books

Conferences

Monographs

Research

My research background is in international dispute resolution and comparative civil procedure.  Many of my publications relate to the interpretation of European legislation on the cross-border enforcement of judgments.  More specifically, a major focus of my research for about the last twenty years has been the machinery for the enforcement of judgments (and other enforceable instruments) in different European countries, and the fruit of this research is in press with Intersentia in the form of a book entitled Civil Enforcement in a Comparative Perspective: A Public Management Challenge.  Individual debt has become an increasing problem in European countries in recent years, a problem expected to be exacerbated by the pandemic.  Good management of debt recovery processes is therefore an important task for public managers.  The book compares enforcement institutions in thirteen different countries and asks how far different state structures and public management traditions contribute to the variety of different institutions that have emerged.  It also investigates whether modern trends in public management - and notably emphasis on public service, the creation of public value and digital governance - are reflected in the regulation of civil enforcement.

My work on European civil procedure and civil enforcement has been recognised in a number of fora.  I have been a European Commission expert on enforcement, a member of two Working Groups in an ELI/UNIDROIT project to develop Model European Rules of Civil Procedure (https://www.unidroit.org/instruments/civil-procedure/eli-unidroit-rules), and a partipant in several projects funded by DG JUSTICE. I am involved in a global project under the aegis of the Max-Planck Institute Luxembourg to create a Compendium on Comparative Procedural Law. In the UK, I sit on the CARE Panel, which was established by CIVEA to raise standards within the enforcement industry and am a member of the Enforcement Law Review Group (of which I was the founding Chair in 1998).

I have benefited from a number of successful funding applications, from funding bodies including the AHRC, European Commission, Nuffield Foundation and British Academy.

Teaching

I currently teach Contract at undergraduate level and International Commercial Arbitration on the LLM programme. I have previously designed and taught modules on a wide range of subjects including International Litigation, EU Law, Comparative Law and the Conflict of Laws. I have extensive experience as a module leader.    

Biography

I graduated with a BA from Cambridge University (New Hall, now Murray Edwards College) in 1984 and completed my doctoral thesis on jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters in Cambridge (Clare College) in 1992.

Academic positions

I have held lectureships at the University of Nottingham, Kings/New Hall Colleges, Keele University and Cardiff University. After a career break from 2002-2010 I obtained a post as a Research Fellow at the University of Wales, Newport and  was subsequently offered the position of Assistant Professor at UCLan, Cyprus.   I returned to Cardiff University in 2014.