Marlinde Nannings wins thesis prize 2018 from the Association for Financial Law

PhD candidate Marlinde Nannings has won the 2018 thesis prize handed out by the Financial Law Association. Her thesis ‘Regulating Initial Coin Offerings: A framework for regulation through the qualification of tokens as an effect’ beat the competition. Nannings was unanimously declared the winner by the evaluation committee.

Nannings completed her thesis under the supervision of Professor of Banking Law & Financial Regulation Bart Bierens. Nannings discussed how blockchain technology competes with traditional forms of financing. In doing so, she researched to what extent the various ‘initial coin offerings’ (ICOs) in the crypto market qualify as a legal effect. According to the evaluation committee of the Financial Law Association, the quality of the entries this year was very high: that makes the unanimous election of Nannings' thesis even better.

Harm Jan Tulp explained the choice for Nannings on behalf of the assessment committee as follows: “In her thesis, Nannings shows that she is very proficient in practicing law. It provides a clear analysis of the legal framework, both national and European, and also takes the next step: what should the legal framework be like? She also provides specific tools for the national and European legislator. She therefore presents own and new insights on a current topic. Moreover, the thesis is extremely pleasant to read due to the clear language and clear explanations. ”

The Faculty of Law congratulates Nannings with this special achievement.