Before joining the University of Hong Kong in 2000, Douglas was the Sir John Lubbock Support Fund Fellow at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) at Queen Mary, University of London. Prior to his appointment as Head of the Department of Law, he co-founded HKU’s Asian Institute of International Financial Law, of which he was director from 2006-2011. He has been a visiting professor or fellow at the Universities of London, McGill, Melbourne, New South Wales, Singapore, and Zurich, as well as Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research.
Douglas’s work focuses on financial law, regulation, and development, with a particular focus on financial crisis prevention and resolution. In this respect, he has worked on financial sector reform projects in over 20 economies in Africa, Asia, and Europe as a consultant with, among others, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, APEC, and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
Douglas is the author, co-author, or co-editor of 11 books including From Crisis to Crisis: The Global Financial System and Regulatory Failure; Financial Stability, Economic Growth and the Role of Law; and Financial Markets in Hong Kong: Law and Practice and is author or co-author of more than 100 studies, articles, and chapters on global, regional, and domestic financial regulation, stability and development.
In 2007, Douglas received the University of Hong Kong’s Outstanding Young Researcher Award, and in 2008, he was named Convener of HKU’s Law, Policy, and Development Strategic Research Theme. In 2009 he was selected as a member of the University Research Committee and in 2011 was elected to the HKU Senate. He currently mentors seven doctoral students from Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America, all working on issues relating to financial law and development.
He holds a BA from Drury College (where he studied literature, economics and political science), a JD (cum laude) from Southern Methodist University, an LLM (with distinction) in banking and finance law from the University of London (Queen Mary College), and a PhD from the University of London.