Elliott Keech

Profile

Biography

LLB (York) LLM in International Corporate and Commercial Law (York) LPC (BPP Holborn) MA in Social Research (York)

VLE transformation project

I studied for my undergraduate degree at York Law School, graduating with an LLB in 2014. I then went on to study an LLM in York where my dissertation focused on ‘what steps should be taken to best regulate CSR in the Oil Industry, a case study in Nigeria.’

I then undertook the Legal Practice Course in London at BPP where I focused on Intellectual Property, Corporate Finance and Private Acquisition. After finishing the LPC, I came back to York and started an Economic and Social Research Council 1+3 PhD Studentship.

I graduated from my MA in Social Research in 2017 after writing a dissertation on ‘The Social Life of Bitcoin: An Empirical Study of the Digital Currency.’

I am currently in my final year of my PhD.

Research

Overview

‘Crime, Innovation and the Technology of Money’

The emergence of Bitcoin has raised fundamental questions about traditional understandings of money and its role in society. There is an urgent need to understand and clarify where cryptocurrencies fit within a wider regulatory landscape associated with monetary instruments and digital technologies. My research aims to offer new perspectives on the challenges and legal uncertainties faced by cryptocurrencies by drawing on the formative moments of historical forms of money. By doing so, this thesis aims to offer unique understandings into the nature of the relationships between money, monetary crime and regulation by conducting its analysis across time. My research adopts a comparative historical analysis by looking at three case studies: banknotes forgery in the 19th century, credit card fraud in the 1970s and the use and misuse of Bitcoin in the 21st Century. 

I am being supervised by Sarah Wilson (YLS) and Henry Yeomans (School of Law at the University of Leeds)

This thesis is generously funded by the ESRC and is part of a White Rose Network with students and supervisors from the University of York, Leeds and Sheffield.

Research Interests

• Legal History
• Financial Crime
• History of Money
• Sociology of Money
• Cryptocurrencies
• Monetary Regulation

Teaching

Undergraduate

• University of York:
  • Year 1 PBL Interim Tutor
  • Year 1 PBL Tutor
  • Year 1 Legal Concepts
• University of Leeds:
  • Year 3 module Crime, Law and Social Change