Professor Ross Buckley

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2011 Fulbright Senior Scholar

“The reforms so far in response to the Global Financial Crisis have embraced no new thinking. Governments have responded with more of the same.”

Professor Ross Buckley, Professor and Chair at the School of Law from the University of New South Wales has received a 2011 Fulbright Senior Scholarship to go to Duke University in North Carolina to undertake a project in international finance law for three months.

“The EU, UK and US are all in the process of enacting regulatory responses to the global financial crisis,” Ross said. “These reforms will help, but all of the thinking behind these reforms is straight from the box that brought us the GFC.”

“In my discussions with senior legal practitioners and regulators, most seem to accept that the complexity of modern securities means that the disclosure regime, upon which all security regulation is based, no longer works effectively.”

Ross’s view is that the GFC requires systemic, not mere national, reforms.

Ross will undertake a project exploring three potential financial reforms, involving financial transaction taxes, bank levies, and a sovereign bankruptcy regime.

“If we don’t pursue truly fundamental reforms in the next 3-5 years, another GFC is highly likely,” Ross said.

Ross will continue the study after he returns to Australia for the next three years.

Ross has a BEcon, University of Queensland; LLB (Hons), University of Queensland; LLM, Bond University; PhD, University of New South Wales; and a LLD, University of Melbourne. He has also received various awards including the Bond University Oxford Scholarship, two ARC Discovery Grants and a previous Fulbright Coral Sea Scholarship, and he has published widely.

In his spare time he enjoys ocean swimming, snow skiing, and walking his very energetic dog.

The prestigious Fulbright program is the largest educational scholarship of its kind, created by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and the U.S. Government in 1946. Aimed at promoting mutual understanding through educational exchange, it operates between the U.S. and 155 countries. In Australia, the scholarships are funded by the Australian and U.S. Governments and corporate partners and administered by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission in Canberra.

Ross is one of 26 talented Australians to be recognised as a Fulbright Scholar in 2011. Applications for Fulbright Scholarships in 2012 open on 1 June, visit www.fulbright.com.au

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