Editorial

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/iir.1266
• Published date: 01 March 2017
• Author: Paul J. Omar
• Date: 01 March 2017

Editorial

It is no easy task to fill someone’s shoes, particularly one as eminent as Professor

Ian Fletcher QC (hc), who has served as Editor of this journal for a quarter of a

century. During his tenure, he has overseen the production of 25 volumes

containing an accumulation of milestones in the history of insolvency law, domestic,

international and comparative. In addition to his many personable qualities and

unfailing humour, Ian is justly known as a world-class academic who has had a

significant influence on the direction that insolvency research has taken through

his work with the insolvency community and his engagement with academia,

practice, policy-makers and the judiciary.

Professor Fletcher began his academic career teaching at the University of

Aberystwyth from 1967 to 1991, was head of department from 1985 to 1988

and became a Professor of Law in 1986. From 1991, he was a Professor of Com-

mercial Law and the head of the Insolvency Law Unit at the Centre for Commer-

cial Law Studies at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London University.

There, he was also the director for the Centre for Commercial Law Studies from

1994 until taking up a position at University College London. Furthering his links

with practice, Ian was elected a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn in 2003 and later became

a member of chambers at 3/4 South Square, Gray’s Inn. In recognition of his

eminence, Ian was invited to take silk as Queen’s Counsel (honoris causa) in

2013. Though advancing in years, Professor Fletcher shows no signs of fully

retiring. He remains an Emeritus Professor of International Commercial Law

and a research associate of the Faculty of Laws of the University College London.

Professor Fletcher’s contributions have been many to the development of the

fields of domestic and international insolvency law in the United Kingdom. His

contributions to the literature are too numerous to mention, although special men-

tion may be made of his monographs: The Law of Insolvency (Sweet and Maxwell)

and Insolvency in Private International Law (Oxford University Press), both of

which have reached the stature of authority. His work with doctoral students in

particular has created a legacy of scholarship that continues to be visible in British

academia today. Almost singlehandedly, his work has done more than most to

elevate the study of insolvency in the United Kingdom to the status it now enjoys

as a discrete legal discipline, and for this alone, he deserves the thanks of the entire

insolvency community.

Professor Fletcher has also been active internationally, serving as a Visiting Pro-

fessor at the University of Texas at Austin and at Tulane University of Louisiana.

His interest in the development of the discipline at international level has been

demonstrated by his membership of numerous international organisations,

Copyright © 2017 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Int. Insolv. Rev., Vol. 26: 3–4 (2017)

Published online in Wiley Online Library

(wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/iir.1266