Rate My Professor Clover Alcolea

Lucas Clover Alcolea is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at Monash University, where he teaches remedies and trusts. He joined Monash in December 2024, following his role as Lecturer at the University of Otago Faculty of Law from May 2022 to November 2024, and as Postdoctoral Associate in the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at Cornell University. Earlier in his career, he worked as a paralegal at an international law firm in Edinburgh, interned at the Judicial Institute for Scotland, completed internships with law firms in Zurich and Paris in private client law and international arbitration, and served as a research assistant on topics including remedies for foreign investors in English law, the intersection of human rights and investment law, and reforms to the WTO Appellate Body. He holds a Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) from McGill University, with a focus on arbitration and trusts under Professor Fabien Gélinas; a Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Edinburgh; and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB Honours) from the University of Aberdeen in 2010.

His research specializations include equity and trusts, property, dispute resolution, legal history with an emphasis on the common law, international investment law, and legal theory, often adopting a comparative approach across Commonwealth jurisdictions and beyond. His scholarship has been cited by the New Zealand Court of Appeal. Major publications encompass his monograph The Arbitration of Trust Disputes (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022). Select recent articles are 'Policy over doctrine: a brief history of US trust law' (ACTEC Law Journal, 2024), 'Common good constitutionalism, natural law, and American history and tradition' (University of St. Thomas Journal of Law & Public Policy, 2024), 'Contractual licences over land and the “disappearing divide between property and obligation”' (Australian Bar Review, 2024), '“The King[’s] Courts as the fountain of justice” and the supremacy of ordinary law: implications for English arbitration' (Arbitration International, 2025), and 'The tiptoe to crypto: an analysis and account of property in cryptocurrency' co-authored with J. Mihal (Common Law World Review, 2025). In 2025, he became a member of Monash's Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies (CLARS).