Profile

Leigh Hancher is a professor of European law at the University of Tilburg, a part-time Professor of European Energy Law at the Florence School of Regulation, EUI, Florence. Her research interests are energy market regulation, EU state aids and energy market governance.

Leigh has been a Professor since 1991, initially at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam In 1996 she was Visiting Professor in "Natural Resources Law" at the University of Calgary, Canada. She was head of the legal department at the Energy Charter secretariat from 1998-1999. She has broad experience in energy regulation issues at the European and national levels. Her expertise as well as her academic research is focused on the changing role of the government in stimulating the liberalisation of traditionally heavily regulated sectors.

Leigh studied law at the Universities of Glasgow and Sheffield, and at the EUI. In 1989 she obtained, with distinctions, her doctorate in law at the University of Leiden. She has served as a member of various think tanks in Europe and is currently a member of the Dutch Mining Council, advising on hydrocarbon licensing.