Sally Zhu

Dr Sally Zhu serves as a Lecturer in Private Law at the University of Sheffield's School of Law, a position she assumed in 2021 following a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Glasgow where she taught Land Law and Legal Theory.

Her academic credentials include:

• PhD in Law, London School of Economics
• LLM, University of Cambridge
• LLB, London School of Economics

Dr Zhu's research critically examines property and private law within digital/platform economies, with emphasis on regulatory frameworks, consumer rights, and risk management in peer-to-peer systems. She employs interdisciplinary methodologies integrating law and economics to analyze evolving property relations in contemporary capitalism, particularly focusing on how institutional design can resolve paradoxes in sharing economies.

Her publication trajectory since 2020 reveals deepening specialization in digital property systems, progressing from foundational studies on co-produced value to advanced analyses of institutional design and mutualism models. This body of work consistently addresses the tension between traditional property law doctrines and emergent sharing economy practices across journals like International Journal of Law in Context and European Journal of Law and Technology.

Key recognition includes:

• Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2018-2021, £322,000) for "Shifting paradigms of material property relations in cyber-sharing-economies"

Dr Zhu holds significant research funding through the Leverhulme Trust and teaches undergraduate courses in Property Law, Advanced Contract, and Commercial Law alongside postgraduate Commercial Law. She mentors students in critical interdisciplinary analysis of socio-economic issues, encouraging eclectic methodological approaches that bridge doctrinal law with practical social change initiatives.

As an active member of the Sheffield Institute for Corporate and Commercial Law, she contributes to academic discourse through editorial roles including Guest Editor for Laws Special Issue and Assistant Editor for Cambridge Elements Philosophy of Law, while continuing her investigation of risk management frameworks in property-sharing systems.