Profile
Professor Severine Saintier
Associate Professor in Commercial Law
6490
01392 726490
Amory 104A
Dr Saintier is Associate Professor in commercial law (Education and Research). She joined Exeter Law School (in January 2014 from Sheffield University.
She previously held positions in Liverpool, Staffordshire and Keele Universities.
She studied law in France (Maitrise, Université du Havre, Maitrise) and in the UK (University of Southampton (Erasmus/Socrates), Staffordshire University (LLM) and Sheffield University (PhD on commercial agency contracts).
Dr Saintier is a member of different professional bodies and societies:
- Member of the Society of Legal Scholars
- Member of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BICCL)
- Member of the European network of legal experts Trans European Expert
- Member of the Society of European Contract SECOLA
Dr Saintier is co-director of the commercial law centre here in Exeter with Dr Joseph Lee (https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/law/staff/jlee/).
Dr Saintier's primary research interest is in the field of contract law (loosely defined). Her research is comparative in nature. Following her PhD under the late Professor Bradgate, her particular expertise is in commercial agency contracts where she has written two monographs and numerous journal articles. Her work in this field was cited by Lord Hoffmann in the (then) House of Lords in Lonsdale v Howard Hallam [2007] UKHL, [2008] 1 WLR 2055 and more recently in the Court of Appeal in Computer Associates UK Ltd v The Software Incubator [2018] EWCA Civ 518.
Research group links
Research interests
Dr Saintier's research interests are in contract law (broadly defined) with a particular interest in commercial agency contracts. In this field, Dr Saintier is currently working on the second edition of 'Commercial Agents and the Law', LLP, with her co-author J Scholes.
In relation to her interest in contract law generally, Dr Saintier has published widely over the years in the area of good faith. In the field of contract law, Dr Saintier is particularly interested in the way the law of contract deals with the protection of the interests of the weaker party, be that weaker party be a business or a consumer. following this particular interest, Dr Saintier has co-edited a book on consumer vulnerability (https://www.routledge.com/Vulnerable-Consumers-and-the-Law-Consumer-Protection-and-Access-to-Justice/Riefa-Saintier/p/book/9780367204686) with Dr Christine Riefa, Brunel University (https://www.brunel.ac.uk/people/christine-riefa). The other is a focus on consumer energy. In particular, the governance of community energy initiatives. She has collaborated with Professor Dr Michiel Heldeweg (Twente university, the Netherlands, https://people.utwente.nl/m.a.heldeweg) on an article now published in RSER (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.109518).
Dr Saintier is also interested in the field of AI and its impact on the law. She has been awarded, Dr Dodsworth (https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/law/staff/dodsworth/) a small ESRC-IAA Business Boost award to work on the possibility of AI as a legal tool in contract. The collaboration is with IBM, Zylpha Ltd and the Land Registry.
Dr Saintier is also involved in the WEFO-funded project on the circular revolution with Riversimple (https://www.riversimple.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Circular-Revolution-Press-Release-Final.English.pdf), Exeter Business School (Dr Fiona Charnley) and Swansea University
Research supervision
Dr Saintier is currently supervising the following PhD students as first supervisor:
- Tania Barton on contract and dementia. Tania is ESRC funded. Tania is being co-supervised with Dr I Lang from the medical school (https://medicine.exeter.ac.uk/people/profile/index.php?web_id=Iain_Lang) and Professor Rebecca Probert also in law (https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/law/staff/probert/).
- Kila Kikelomo on regulating corporate participation in climat change litigation in Nigeria.Kikelomo is being co-supervised with Dr Caine (https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/law/staff/caine/).
Dr Saintier is also supervising the following PhD students as second supervisor:
- Anton Blockin on the attribution of agent's knowledge in non-consumer insurance contracts. Anton is being co-supervised with Professor Merkin
- Shaya Alsharhani on online consumer contracts in Saudi Arabia. Shaya is co-supervised with Dr Joasia Luzac (https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/law/staff/luzak/).
Dr Saintier welcomes applications in the fields of commercial, contract law as well as comparative law generally.
Research students
Whislt at Exeter, Dr Saintier has successfully supervised the following students:
- Matthew Chanon on exclusions in insurance contracts (Matthew graduated in the Summer 2018)
- Joint with Professeur Blandine Mallet-Bricout Lyon 3 France: Caroline Lardaud-Clerc, on the protection of expectations. Caroline graduated in December 2016
Modules taught
- LAW1004 - The Law of Contract
- LAW2139 - Comparative Contract Law
- LAW3019 - Commercial Law
- LAW3051 - French Law of Contract