Law School

Photo of Dr Robert Herian

Dr Robert Herian

Associate Professor

R.Herian@exeter.ac.uk

Amory B2423

Overview

I am an Associate Professor of Law. My current research focuses on interdisciplinary and theoretical analyses of law, technologies, systems, and data. My teaching focuses on equity and trusts, and law and technology.

Back to top

Research

  • Law, technology, and data
  • Law and psychoanalysis
  • History and development of the law of equity
  • Law and literature
  • Critical legal theory, philosophy, and jurisprudence

Back to top

Supervision

I'm interested in supervising PhD projects that explore one or more of my research topics, including intersections of technology, data, property, equity, contract, critical theory, and political economy. 

Research students

  • Bratu, I. Lex Technica as a New Legal Order (with The Open University, in progress)
  • Lewis, M. Consent as a legitimising factor for the processing of personal data and ‘big data’ for the purposes of profiling and risk analytics within the General Insurance industry (with The Open University, in progress)

Back to top

Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| 2024 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |

2024

  • Herian R. (2024) Your data is s**t, Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization, volume 23, pages 239-249.

2022

  • Herian R. (2022) APPG Blockchain Evidence Report - Government, Democracy & Voting, APPG Blockchain Secretariat, Big Innovation Centre.
  • Herian R. (2022) Techno-Legal Supertoys: Smart Contracts and the Fetishization of Legal Certainty, Smart Legal Contracts Computable Law in Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, 246-268. [PDF]

2021

  • Herian R. (2021) Law and the Reality It Masks, Capitalism and the Equity Fetish, Springer International Publishing, 191-200, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-66523-4_10. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Stakeholders of Capitalism, Capitalism and the Equity Fetish, Springer International Publishing, 73-107, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-66523-4_5. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) The Road to Complete Justice, Capitalism and the Equity Fetish, Springer International Publishing, 47-71, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-66523-4_4. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Somewhere between privacy and protection, Data, Routledge, 42-66, DOI:10.4324/9781003162001-3. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Data with subject, Data, Routledge, 89-110, DOI:10.4324/9781003162001-5. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Reform Economics and the ‘Plucked Rib’ of Equity, Capitalism and the Equity Fetish, Springer International Publishing, 27-46, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-66523-4_3. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) A Different Theory of Civil Justice, Capitalism and the Equity Fetish, Springer International Publishing, 109-122, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-66523-4_6. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Fetishism in Action, Capitalism and the Equity Fetish, Springer International Publishing, 123-139, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-66523-4_7. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Equity Fetishism, Capitalism and the Equity Fetish, Springer International Publishing, 141-163, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-66523-4_8. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Data, Routledge, DOI:10.4324/9781003162001. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Beautiful machines and bureaucratic dreams, Data, Routledge, 15-41, DOI:10.4324/9781003162001-2. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Setting the Scene, Capitalism and the Equity Fetish, Springer International Publishing, 13-25, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-66523-4_2. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Introduction, Data, Routledge, 1-14, DOI:10.4324/9781003162001-1. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Neoliberalism and Equity Fetishism, Capitalism and the Equity Fetish, Springer International Publishing, 165-189, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-66523-4_9. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Being in data, Data, Routledge, 67-88, DOI:10.4324/9781003162001-4. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Capitalism and the Equity Fetish, Springer International Publishing, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-66523-4. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Introduction, Capitalism and the Equity Fetish, Springer International Publishing, 1-11, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-66523-4_1. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) Proximate data – a conclusion, Data, Routledge, 111-125, DOI:10.4324/9781003162001-6. [PDF]
  • Herian R. (2021) NFT – Legal Token Classification.
  • Herian R. (2021) Technology with legal education, The Critical Legal Pocketbook, Counter Press, 267-272.
  • Herian R. (2021) Capitalism and the Equity Fetish Desire, Property, Justice, Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Herian R. (2021) Data New Trajectories in Law, Routledge.

2020

2018

2017

2016

2015

  • Herian R. (2015) Henry Miller: obscene other of the law, Henry Miller New Perspectives, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 95-108.

2014

Back to top

External impact and engagement

Back to top

Teaching

Modules taught

Back to top

Biography

My current research focuses on interdisciplinary and theoretical analyses of law, technologies, systems, and data.  I often present research at domestic and international conferences and publish in legal and non-legal peer-reviewed journals, edited collections, and via online portals including The Conversation and Critical Legal Thinking. I also work on developing technology policy with UK and EU governments.   

I am author of three books Regulating Blockchain: Critical Perspectives in Law and Technology (Routledge, 2018), Data: New Trajectories in Law (Routledge, 2021), and Capitalism and the Equity Fetish: Desire, Property, Justice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)

My further research interests include the law of equity, legal histories, civil justice, psychoanalysis, literature, and language drawing upon critical theories, philosophy, and traditional jurisprudence.  I'm co-founder of the Law, Information, Future, Technology (LIFT) research group with The Open University Law School, and the Equity and Trusts Research Network (ETRN) with the University of Kent Law School. 

For a full list of conference papers, working papers, and publications, please follow my ORCID link.

Back to top

 Edit profile