Amy Held

Amy is currently based at the University of Vienna at the Chair of Private International Law and Comparative Law.  She has maintained from 2017 an academic specialism in cryptoassets and decentralised ledger technologies from both national English law and international law perspectives; with Masters’ research considering the private law implications arising from the adoption of decentralised ledger technology in the financial markets, and doctoral research exploring the harmonisation and/or unification of national substantive property laws as part of a comprehensive private international law regime for a-territorial assets such as Bitcoin and data generated from decentralised ledger technologies.

She continues to publish and speak widely on these and related issues in both the academic and practitioner contexts, with a particular emphasis on property issues from civil, criminal, procedural, and regulatory/administrative law perspectives.  She is keen to explore the points at which these perspectives intersect, comparing the civil and criminal/regulatory law approaches to proprietary status, asset tracing, and enforcement/confiscation proceedings.

In 2022, she was a National Special Rapporteur for the IACL General Congress Study on cryptocurrencies, reporting on the legal status of cryptocurrencies across the full spectrum of the laws of England and Wales and the UK.  She also took up a scholarship at UNIDROIT, where she was involved with its 2020-2022 projects on Digital Assets and on Effective Enforcement.

Amy is always on the lookout for fresh perspectives and new opportunities to inform, stimulate debate, and further contribute to this fast-developing area of law.