Seminar Spring Semester 2026

The Chair of Law and Finance (Prof. Alexander) will offer the seminar 'Financial Regulation - Principles and Policy' in the Spring Semester 2026.

The seminar focuses on current legal and regulatory issues in the financial sector, with particular emphasis on banking regulation, financial markets, and international economic law.

You will find all information about the course here (there is no OLAT page).

The seminar is open to:

• Bachelor students (Bachelor thesis)
• Master students (Master thesis)
• Doctoral students (Doctoral colloquium)

Participation in the seminar requires attendance on site for the entire duration of the seminar. 

The seminar addresses contemporary questions in financial regulation. Possible areas include:

• International Banking Regulation

• Swiss Banking Law and Regulation

• European Union Banking and Financial Market Regulation

• International Economic Law

• Financial Crime and Sanctions

• Corporate Law and Governance

• Insider Dealing and Market Abuse

• Bitcoin and Decentralized Finance

Please note that we encourage students to consider doing a comparative or international analysis in their thesis topic, but this is not specifically required. Please feel free to look at topics from previous years as well as Professor Alexander's teaching materials for inspiration. 

A research outline (1-2 pages, in English) must be submitted by email to the chair: lst.alexander@ius.uzh.ch

Your outline should include:

• Proposed research question
• Short description of the topic of choice
• Tentative table of contents (structure)
• Preliminary list of references

The research outline must be approved before your topic is secured. 

Key Information on the Seminar Session:

• Date: [TBD]. At this stage, we expect the seminar sessions to take place during the week of 11 May 2026. However, the exact dates have not yet been finalised.
• Location: Loyens & Loeff Switzerland LLC (Alfred-Escher-Strasse 50, 8002 Zurich)
• Language: English

Participation in the seminar requires attendance on site for the entire duration of the seminar (most likely two whole days).

All participants give a 15 minute presentation (with PowerPoint slides) on their seminar paper, followed by a short Q&A session.

• The presentation is not graded separately, but it may influence the overall grade.
• Slides must be submitted to lst.alexander@ius.uzh.ch by [TBD].

Printed Copies

• Submit two hard copied (not registered mail) to: University of Zurich (RWI), Chair of Prof. Alexander, Rämistrasse 74, 8008 Zurich
• Alternatively, you may submit them in person at the Chair's office (RAI-G-099/097).

Electronic Submission

• Send one PDF file and one Word file to: lst.alexander@ius.uzh.ch

Deadline: Monday, 4 May 2026

• The postmark serves as proof of timely submission.

• No PDF and Word submission later than 23.59 pm.

• Both deadlines, for the printed copies and for the digital submission, must be met for the paper to be considered submitted on time. Late submissions will not be graded and therefore result in a fail. 

For Master's theses written outside the seminar supervised by Prof. Kern Alexander, the same conditions apply as for seminar participants. All information provided on this website, in particular regarding participation requirements, deadlines, expectations and procedures, equally applies to Master's theses written outside the seminar.

Information Bachelor and Master Thesis

Materials for Seminars

Previous Seminars / Archive