About
John Tribe, PhD (University College London) is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Liverpool and an Academic Associate at Exchange Chambers. John is a leading academic authority on insolvency law and policy. His current areas of interest include insolvent charities and rescue, the eternal recurrence and insolvency, and timeliness and communitarianism in corporate insolvency. An exponent of progressive bankruptcy communitarianism, John approaches his scholarship from a normative and critical reform perspective. This work is underpinned by his legal history scholarship. John has published extensively. His work has been cited in judgments across the common law jurisdictions and by academics around the Globe (at Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Lancaster, British Columbia, Kent, and LSE). John is recognised internationally for his work on personal insolvency, officeholder behaviour, and for advocating corporate insolvency approaches based on the 'timeline of insolvency' and 'consensual restructuring'. In the realm of charity law John has introduced the 'patronage bargain' theory and used bankruptcy theory to advocate for charity rescue to maintain public benefit.
John has written for a number of authoritative works. He is joint author of Muir Hunter on Personal Insolvency , "the leading textbook on personal bankruptcy" (per Lord Millett, 2015). The work was first produced by Lord Justice Vaughan Williams in 1870 and is frequently cited with approval in the Superior Courts of England and Wales, including twenty-eight (28) references between 2017 and 2024. The work has also been cited in numerous Commonwealth jurisdictions, most recently in New Zealand's Court of Appeal. The book ranks amongst the most influential texts in insolvency law. John has also contributed chapters to Tolley's Insolvency Law, including a chapter on insolvent charities.
As "a long standing and trusted stakeholder" John is frequently involved in policy and legislation reform work, including three current projects ((1) Directors' Education, (2) Disclaimer and Escheat, and (3) Personal Insolvency Reform) with the Insolvency Service (An Executive Agency of the Department for Business and Trade). John's work has impacted on policy, legislation, and judicial decisions. He has given expert evidence to the UK Parliament and the Scottish Parliament. In 2006 he gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Enterprise and Culture Committee during the passage of the Bankruptcy and Diligence, etc (Scotland) Bill (now Act). In 2021 John gave evidence to the Public Bills Committee of the House of Commons on the Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Bill (now Act). In 2021 John chaired an Insolvency Service workstream consisting of representatives from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, Her Majesty’s Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority, UK Finance, debt advice charities, and the professions. The group were examining the reform of personal insolvency law. This work continues in 2024. In 2022 John joined the Government’s ‘Director Education Advisory Group’ which is examining director education in the United Kingdom. This is a significant long-term collaborative project that spans across various Government departments and industry including stakeholders from His Majesty's Revenue & Customs , His Majesty's Treasury , Companies House, the Institute of Directors , the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland , Funding Circle , the Royal Bank of Scotland and which is being led by the Insolvency Service . The Director Information Hub, launched in July 2023 as a single entry point on GOV.UK providing guidance to around 7 million directors of 5.2 million UK registered companies. Over the last two decades John has been involved in policy discussions involving personal insolvency issues such as bankruptcy discharge, debtor education, insolvency procedure fees, and, officeholder bonds. Corporate insolvency points have included, dissolution and restoration of companies, directors’ disqualification, director education, and, recent collaborative work on national interest insolvency including escheat liabilities following disclaimer of onerous property.
John has undertaken funded research for the Insolvency Service (UK Government), Grant Thornton, Baker Tilly, KPMG and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). John was PI on two Insolvency Service funded empirical projects. The first was an examination of the reduction in automatic discharge in bankruptcy following the Enterprise Act 2002. The second examined debtor education and the credit environment in England and Wales (with Dr. Leyanda Cocks). John was also PI on a Baker Tilly funded project that examined the history and policy of insolvency bonds, a type of insurance for insolvency practitioners. More recently John was in receipt of an Economic and Social Research Council Collaborative Innovation Grant as part of Methods NW (with Dr. Cerian Griffiths).
John sits on the editorial boards of the BPIR law reports , Corporate Rescue & Insolvency (CRI), and, Mithani: Directors' Disqualification. An experienced media commentator, John has appeared on Sky television, BBC television and radio and given a number of quotes to the press on insolvency. John was a member of the Executive Committee of the Society of Legal Scholars, and chaired the Open Section. John became an Academic Associate of Exchange Chambers in 2016. He is also an Honorary Member of Hall at the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn. As part of his other Knowledge Exchange (KE) collaboration activity John works with the Liverpool Business & Property Court Forum as a member of the LBPCF committee. John has given numerous invited lectures over the last decade, including: Insolvency Lawyers' Association (ILA, 2012), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW, 2016), the Insolvency Practitioners' Association (IPA, 2017, 2020, 2021), the Insolvency Service (UK Government, 2018 and 2022), the University of Adelaide and Lynch Meyer, Australia (2019), and the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India (2021).
John is Director of Education (law) and has significant teaching responsibilities at Liverpool. He is module leader for the core second year Land Law module (LAW242), Land Law Dissertation (LAW037), and for Corporate Insolvency Law (LAW373), a popular third year elective. John has taught across various private law modules at LL.B. and LL.M. level including Company Law, Corporate Insolvency, Equity & Trusts, and, Land Law. He holds a PGCE (2004) and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). John was shortlisted for the 2008 HEA/OUP Law Teacher of the Year award and won the 2024 University of Law sponsored 'Lecturer of the Year' award from the University of Liverpool's Legal Society. John has led the development of the Equity Shorts and Insolvency Shorts series of supplementary materials at Liverpool. More recently in Land Law John has been successfully using ‘object-based learning’ with his land law dioramas and accompanying VLE materials. A Centre for Innovation in Education film on this ‘object-based learning’ work can be viewed here.
John is supervising three doctoral candidates, having supervised two to completion who now work in UKHE. Maxim Cardew is examining insolvent charities. Keith Arrowsmith is examining charity governance. Stratios Koytzoumis is examining the nature of the home. John is happy to hear from prospective doctoral candidates with an interest in insolvency law.
Prizes or Honours
- Honorary Member of Hall (Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, 2024)
- Lecturer of the Year 2024 (University of Liverpool Legal Society, sponsored by the University of Law, 2024)
- Joseph Hume Scholarship in Law (University College London , 2001)