Natalie Mrockova

Natalie is a Career Development Researcher and Lecturer in Law at Merton College where she teaches Land Law, Contract Law and Roman Law. She also teaches Trusts. Her other affiliations in Oxford include Law and Finance Associateship in the China Centre and Associateship in the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. Prior to her Merton appointment, Natalie held a Supernumerary Teaching Fellowship in Law at St John's College and Stipendiary Lecturerships at Pembroke College and St Hugh's College. Outside of Oxford, she also taught at universities in Cambridge, Paris (France), and Wuhan (China), and held visiting research posts at several universities including Columbia University in New York and the University of Sydney in Australia. She has received a number scholarships and awards, including ILA Debbie Philips Scholarship; Freshfields Oxford Law Scholarship; ILA Young Academic of the Year; and Bruckhaus Deringer Scholarship. 
Natalie also speaks several languages, including Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Czech, which help her carry out comparative legal research.

Natalie gained an undergraduate degree in Law with Chinese and Arabic at the University of Nottingham. She also completed the Master in Law and Finance at the University of Oxford. Her doctorate, also at the University of Oxford, looked at why the Chinese insolvency law is not effectively used by the many failing enterprises in China and what wider lessons can be learnt from this failure. 

Her research interests are in the area of private law, with a particular focus on commercial property (land, trusts, insolvency, commercial). She is especially interested in the interaction of law, finance, and economics; the problems facing property law rules in weak enforcement environment; the content of property rights and the rules that govern the overlap of proprietary and personal rights; and doctrinal issues.  

Prior to returning to academia, Natalie worked for several years as a commercial translator and negotiator and later also as a senior manager in two European industrial companies. Her practical experience still informs much of her research and her interests.
Natalie has worked with a number of international bodies, including the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank, and more recently also the Dubai International Financial Centre (and in particular its subsidiary, the Courts of the Future). 
Natalie also acts as a consultant in transnational and China-related commercial disputes and cooperates as an external expert with governments as well as national and international bodies and private clients.