Lecturer in Commercial Law
LLB (Durham), PhD (Manchester), PGCert (Anglia Ruskin)
Email : sean.thomas@le.ac.uk
Telephone: 0116 252 2332

Sean completed his PhD ('A Comparative Analysis of the Rule of Nemo Dat Quoad Non Habet and its Exceptions in the Law of England and Wales and the Law of the United States of America') at the University of Manchester in 2008, where he had been a Graduate Teaching Assistant, teaching Land Law, Equity and Trusts, and Criminal Law.  Between September 2008 and September 2010 he was a Senior Lecturer in Law at Anglia Ruskin University, teaching Criminal Law, Land Law, Commercial Law, and International Business Law.  He took up his current post in September 2010.  Sean's primary research focus is on transferance of ownership of goods, in particular the operation of the rule nemo dat quod non habet and its exceptions.  Sean is also interested in freeganism and similar "radical" property practices.

Sean is also a member of the Secured Transactions Law Reform Project.  This Project was set up following the consultations to changes to system of registrations of charges under the Companies Act 2006 (see http://www.bis.gov.uk/Consultations/registration-of-charges).  The Project’s website is http://securedtransactionsproject.wordpress.com/.  Sean will be working alongside legal practitioners, representatives from the financing sector, and other academics as a member of Working Group B on Priorities.

Sean's current projects include:

A comparison of the English and American law on exceptions to the rule nemo dat quod non habet for transfers of documents of title.

An analysis of the extent to which mortgagees of residential property are entitled to extend their security into personal property.

An examination of potential solutions to the nemo dat problem

Research Interests

Commercial law, in particular the transference of ownership of personal property; modern legal history; comparative law, in particular comparative analysis of English and American commercial law; property theory.

Selected Publications

• 'Goods with embedded software: obligations under Section 12 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979' (2012) International Review of Law, Computers & Technology (forthcoming)
• ‘The Right to Reject for Short Delivery and Termination’ (2012) 11 Journal of International Trade Law and Policy 44-64
• ‘The Origins of the Factors Acts 1823 and 1825’ (2011) 32 Journal of Legal History 151-187
• ‘Do Freegans commit theft?’ (2010) 30 Legal Studies 98-125
• ‘Mistake of identity: a comparative analysis’ [2008] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 188-213

Teaching Interests

Undergraduate
Land Law
Commercial Law

Postgraduate
Foundations of International Commercial Law
International Sales Transactions
Financing International Sales
Comparative Law

PhD supervision

Sean welcomes approaches from prospective doctoral students within the areas of his research interests.