Muharem Kianieff has been a member of the University of Windsor Faculty of Law since August 2008.
Professor Kianieff teaches and writes in the area of corporate and commercial law and is a member of Windsor Law's Law and Technology (LTEC) Lab.
His research looks at the role that regulation plays as it applies to innovations in payment mechanisms and financial technology. By using economic and historical analyses, Professor Kianieff seeks to make proposals for reform that make products safer for consumers and increases access to justice.
Professor Kianieff’s current work focusses on Fintech, Blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies, payment mechanisms, consumer protection, privacy and financial reform. He is the author of the recent Informa Law book, “Blockchain Technology and the Law: Opportunities and Risks.” He is also the author of a number of articles that have been published by leading Canadian Law Reviews and has co-authored a piece (with Professor Benjamin Geva) for the International Monetary Fund.
Professor Kianieff has previously attended Trent University where he completed a double major BA (Hons.) degree in political science/economics and graduated with the J.J. Robinette Prize. He then received his legal education from The Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. Professor Kianieff returned to Osgoode to complete his PhD writing his dissertation on Consumer Retail Electronic payments that were emerging in the early dot com era.
While on sabbatical in 2018, Professor Kianieff served as a Grotius Research Scholar at the University of Michigan Law School. This is a competitive program that allows individuals to conduct research at the law school. It is open to scholars from around the world that are selected on the basis of their career accomplishments and proposed areas of study. Professor Kianieff explored the depths of blockchain technology and he conducted cutting-edge research for his new monograph (from Routledge) on the legal implications of blockchain technology: a technology originally devised to support the digital currency of Bitcoin.
In Winter 2020, Professor Kianieff will be teaching a new course that he has developed in Blockchain Technologies and Commercial Law. The course, one of the first of its kind, will expose students to many of the legal and consumer protection issues that surround the development of distributed ledgers and their commercial applications.