Research interests

• International Law and European Law
• Competition and Consumer Law
• Financial Law and Digitalisation 
• Greenwashing and Climate Litigation
• Human Right, Business Law, and Sustainability

Current research

Iris Benöhr’s main research interests lie in international and EU law, in particular competition and consumer law, financial regulation and digitalisation, human rights, business law and sustainable development.

Her current research explores the evolving role of financial consumer protection in the digital economy. Notably, she is co-editing a book with Dr. Georgosouli on Consumer Protection in Financial Services Law and Regulation (Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming 2025). This book explores the protection of financial consumers as debtors, retail investors, insurance holders and depositors vis-à-vis their financial providers. It critically examines the nature of financial consumer protection, maps current trends, and concludes with reflections about its future development.

Prof. Benöhr’s research also examines the growing intersection between consumer law and environmental protection. Recent studies have shown that consumers’ behaviour has a significant and increasing impact on climate change through the purchase of goods and use of services that generate greenhouse gas emissions.  Exploring different regulatory techniques and evaluating recent legal initiatives, Prof. Benöhr’s ongoing work analyses how commercial and consumer law could facilitate sustainable choices and mitigate climate change, while fighting greenwashing.

Prof. Benöhr is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her teaching interests/experience are in the following areas:

• International Law and EU Law
• Commercial and Consumer Law
• Financial Regulation & Data Protection
• Human Rights, Business Law, and Sustainability
• Competition and Comparative Law

Iris Benöhr is a Full Professor of Law and the Director of Internationalisation at Southampton Law School.  Previously, she was the Deputy Director of the Institute for Competition and Consumers (ICC) and a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at Queen Mary University of London. She was awarded the British Academy Fellowship for outstanding academic merit and worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies).

Prof. Benöhr holds a PhD and master’s degree from the European University Institute, Italy and a LLB Law degree from the University of Neuchâtel (Licence en Droit), Switzerland. She was admitted to the Bar, Zurich as a qualified lawyer and practiced competition and consumer law in leading law firms in Switzerland and Belgium, holding also positions at the United Nations and the European Commission.

She secured major funding for her research and was a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg, the Institute of European and Comparative Law at the University of Oxford, the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, Lausanne, and the University of Wisconsin. She published extensively in the fields of commercial and consumer law and worked as a consultant for the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Caribbean Community, the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies.