Dr. Gebreyesus Abegaz Yimer
Main Fields of Research
Financial regulation in developing countries, microfinance laws, legal reform in Africa, law and development, law and society, legal pluralism, legal theory, customary laws, research methodology
Vita
I began working as a researcher and lecturer in law at Mekelle University in 2006. In 2009 I won a scholarship from Nuffic: The Dutch Organisation for Internationalisation in Education, to study at Erasmus University Rotterdam. There, I studied business, corporate and maritime law and finished second in the class. Considering my active role in research and publication, the Mekelle University Senate approved my promotion to assistant professor in 2014. I taught undergraduate and postgraduate students, including in postgraduate programs we launched in collaboration with other universities, notably the University of Amsterdam. My subjects taught include contract law, legal history, customary laws, tax law and law and finance.
Also in 2014, I initiated a collaborative research project with KU Leuven to investigate the informal economy and the law in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. The project was funded by the Flemish Interuniversity Council–University Development Cooperation (VLIR–UOS). I was thrice a visiting scholar at KU Leuven between 2014 and 2016 and have presented two papers at seminars and conferences organized by KU Leuven. In 2019 I also gave a middaggesprek (lunch lecture) to the broader KU Leuven community under the auspices of the university’s privileged Metaforum.
In 2017 I received a Global-MINDS scholarship to start my PhD studies at KU Leuven. I was a visiting researcher at the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives at Saskatchewan University from September 15–October 14, 2019. In January 2023, I joined the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg as a senior research fellow. My research covers financial regulation in developing countries, microfinance laws, legal reform in Africa, law and development, law and society, legal pluralism, legal theory, customary laws and research methodology.