Skip to main content

Staff Profile

Dr Jon Truby

Visiting Fellow of AI Law & Governance

Background

Prof. Jon Truby PhD, AI and Data Law Professor


Dr Jon Truby is a Visiting Fellow at Newcastle Law School, Newcastle University, where he researches and advises on AI law and governance, data governance, emerging technologies and sustainability. He is named by Stanford University as one of the World's Top 2% Scientists. He is a highly cited and published specialist in emerging technologies law and sustainable development, with strong research impact in financial technology and artificial intelligence. As a lawyer and academic established in law, policy and social sciences, he has secured and delivered on over $6 million dollars in research grants in his field, resulting in high impact outputs. His research on Blockchain policy and sustainability was presented at the United Nations, and he serves a number of policy and and advisory committees.


His Ph.D from Newcastle Law School at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (England) was a doctoral study of environmental tax law and its impact upon environmental behaviour including sustainable energy consumption and production. His undergraduate degree was also from Newcastle Law School where he received a First Class Honours Degree in his LLB Degree with prizes. After his postgraduate professional legal qualification at the University of Law in York (England), where he focused upon commercial and corporate law, he went on to practice law in a top ten global law firm in the City of London, before beginning his doctorate. 


From 2010-2023 he worked as an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Law & Development at Qatar University College of Law. His work in the Gulf continues as Director of MENA Executive Training www.menaexecutivetraining.com. His contribution in the Gulf has resulted in, amongst others, the first ERASMUS+ programme in the region, the founding of Qatar's legal research centre, the founding of a bilingual internationally peer reviewed law journal, the institutionalisation of Qatar's first law college, the development of Qatar's first LLM and PhD programmes, a number of major partnerships with leading local and international organisations, serving College and University level management teams, delivering major conferences such as on financial technology, cybersecurity, sustainability and arbitration funded by industry stakeholders, developing endowed Chair positions, running a major continuing legal education programme, and serving as course leader for graduate and undergraduate teaching in environmental law courses, climate change, business law and AML/CFT. His experience in educating first generational law students has helped many graduates enter into the legal profession.


Professional Bodies and Activities 

·     DAMA UK Committee Member

·      IAPP Member: AIGP Expert

·      Director at MENA Executive Training https://www.menaexecutivetraining.com/about-dr-jon-truby

·      Member of UNESCO’s Group of Friends on the Recommendation on the ethics of artificial intelligence

·      Advisor to Qatar Climate Change Committee for COP UNFCCC

·      Advisor to UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report and Monitoring and Evaluation of Climate Change Education (MECCE)

·      Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Embassy of Spain appointed Director of Research in Islamic Finance


Professional Certifications

·      CDMP DAMA Data Management

·      Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) - The International Association of Privacy Professionals

·      Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E) - The International Association of Privacy Professionals

·      Certified Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional (AIGP) - The International Association of Privacy Professionals


Academic Qualifications

2008 – 2011                Ph.D in Law

University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, Newcastle Law School, UK

Passed with No Corrections


2009                           Certificate in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education

University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Newcastle Law School, UK

 

2008 – 2009               Postgraduate Certificate in Research Training

                                   University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Newcastle Law School

 

2005 – 2006               Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice (Professional Solicitor training qualification)

The College of Law, York, UK

  Legal Practice Course specialising in Corporate & Commercial Law

Passed with Commendation

 

2002 – 2005               LLB (Law) Degree with Honours

University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Newcastle Law School, UK

  First Class Honours in Law with prizes


Research

Research interests: Law and policy issues in Emerging Technologies & Sustainability


Recent publications:

·      Jon Truby (Ed), Artificial Intelligence, Governance and Sustainable Development: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (Palgrave, 2024);

·      Jon Truby, Rafael Dean Brown & Imad Antoine Ibrahim (2023) Regulatory options for vehicle telematics devices: balancing driver safety, data privacy and data security, International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, DOI: 10.1080/13600869.2023.2242671; https://www.dataprivacy.academy

·      Jon Truby, China’s Trade Ambitions in the Arab World and the Role of Free Trade Agreements in the Realization of Sustainable Development Goals in the Region (Cambridge University Press, 2023) Asian Journal of Law and Society

·      Jon Truby, Decarbonising the GCC: Sustainability and Life after Oil and in GCC Countries (https://doi.org/10.1093/jwelb/jwac040) Journal of World Energy Law & Business (Oxford University Press, 2023);

·      Ibrahim, I. A., & Truby, J. M. (2023). FarmTech: Regulating the use of digital technologies in the agricultural sector. Food and Energy Security, 00, e483. https://doi.org/10.1002/fes3.483

·       Jon Truby, Andrew Dahdal & Imad Antoine Ibrahim (2022) Sandboxes in the desert: is a cross-border ‘gulf box’ feasible?, Law, Innovation and Technology, 10.1080/17579961.2022.2113674

·       Jon Truby, 'Legality of Using Blockchain to Support INSTEX and Other Special Purpose Vehicles to Enable Humanitarian Trade with Sanctioned States', (2022), 17, Global Trade and Customs Journal, Issue 9, pp. 397-403, https://kluwerlawonline.com/journalarticle/Global+Trade+and+Customs+Journal/17.9/GTCJ2022055;

·       Truby, J., Dahdal, A., & Caudevilla, O. (2022). Global Blockchain-Based Trade Finance Solutions: Analysis of Governance Models and Impact on Local Laws in Six Jurisdictions, Global Journal of Comparative Law, 11(2), 167-196. https://doi.org/10.1163/2211906X-11020001; 

·       The Role and Potential of Blockchain Technology in Islamic Finance’. European Business Law Review 33(2) (2022), pp.175-192 https://doi.org/10.54648/eulr2022005; 

·       Blockchain, climate damage, and death: Policy interventions to reduce the carbon emissions, mortality, and net-zero implications of non-fungible tokens and Bitcoin (2022) Energy Research & Social Science https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102499;

·       A Sandbox Approach to Regulating High-Risk Artificial Intelligence Applications (2021) European Journal of Risk Regulationhttps://www.doi.org/10.1017/err.2021.52;  

·       Brown, Rafael, Truby, Jon and Ibrahim, Imad Antoine. "Mending Lacunas in the EU’s GDPR and Proposed Artificial Intelligence Regulation" European Studies, vol.9, no.1, 2022, pp.61-90. https://doi.org/10.2478/eustu-2022-0003

·       Big Data Analytics and Its Impact on Basin Water Agreements and International Water Law (2022) 1–171 Brill Research Perspectives in International Water Law ISBN: 978-90-04-50762-3 https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004507623_002;

·       Governance in the era of Blockchain technology in Qatar: a roadmap and a manual for Trade Finance. Journal of Banking Regulation (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41261-021-00165-1; 

·       Human digital thought clones: the Holy Grail of artificial intelligence for big data (2020) Information & Communications Technology Law 30(2)​​​​​​​https://doi.org/10.1080/13600834.2020.1850174; 

·       Trade Finance in Qatar: Blockchain and Economic Diversification (2020) 14(4) Law and Financial Markets Review https://doi.org/10.1080/17521440.2020.1833431;

·       Banking on AI: mandating a proactive approach to AI regulation in the financial sector (2020) Law and Financial Markets Review, https://doi.org/10.1080/17521440.2020.1760454;

·       Governing Artificial Intelligence to benefit the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2020) Sustainable Development https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2048;

·       Decarbonizing Bitcoin: law and policy choices for reducing the energy consumption of Blockchain technologies and digital currencies (2018) 44 Energy Research & Social Science 399-410 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.06.009;

·       FinTech and the City: Sandbox 2.0 policy and regulatory reform proposals (2019) International Review of Law, Computers and Technology https://doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2018.1546542;

·       Using Bitcoin technology to combat climate change (2018) Nature Asia doi:10.1038/nmiddleeast.2018.111;  

·       ‘Financing and self-financing of SDGs through financial technology, legal and fiscal tools’, in Julia Walker, Alma Pekmezovic and Gordon Walker (Eds) Sustainable Development: Harnessing Business to Achieve the SDGs through Financing, Technology and Innovation (Wiley: 2019) Chapter 11, pp.205-218;

·       ‘Climate Change law, policy and litigation in Qatar’, in Francesco Sindico (Ed.) Comparative Climate Change Litigation: Beyond the Usual Suspects (Springer Nature: 2021) https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-46882-8_17;

·       Achieving Green Building in Qatar Through Legal and Fiscal Tools, Journal of Sustainable Development, Vol. 12, No. 5, October 2019 DOI:10.5539/jsd.v12n5p96;

·       Truby J., Botchway F.N.N. (2019) Qatar: Energy Policy. In: Tiess G., Majumder T., Cameron P. (eds) Encyclopedia of Mineral and Energy Policy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40871-7_150-1;

·       VW’s ‘defeat devices’ and liability for claims for lost emissions tax revenue (2017) 1 Global Journal of Comparative Law 1-24 https://doi.org/10.1163/2211906X-00601001;

·       The Director Duty of Care in Qatar (2016) 26 Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law 337-375;

·       Regulating Sovereign Wealth Funds to Avoid Investment Protectionism (2015) 1 Journal of Financial Regulation (Oxford) 95-134 https://doi.org/10.1093/jfr/fju002;

·       Jon Truby, Enforcement Activism of the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive During the Global Financial Crisis, 38 Wm. & Mary Envtl. L. & Pol'y Rev. 695 (2014), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmelpr/vol38/iss3/4;

·       Measuring Qatar’s compliance with international standards on money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (2016) 19-3 Journal of Money Laundering Control https://doi.org/10.1108/JMLC-04-2015-0011;

·       Qatar’s progress towards preventing terror finance through the abuse of charitable status and the financial sector (2016) 19(4) Journal of Money Laundering Control https://doi.org/10.1108/JMLC-08-2015-0031;

·       Deutsche Bank and the Use of Promises in Islamic Finance Contracts (2013) 7(4) Virginia Law & Business Review 619;

·       Maritime Emissions Taxation: An Alternative to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme? 31 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 310 (2014);

·       Extraterritoriality or an Illegal Tax? A Challenge to the Inclusion of Aviation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (2012) 14 Environmental Law Review 4, 301-306;

·       Fiscal tools for inclusion of GCC states in the global environmental programme: focus upon new vehicle imports (2012) in Green Taxation and Environmental Sustainability (Edward Elgar, London, 2012) DOI:https://doi.org/10.4337/9781781952184.00022;

·       EU Environmental Law (2018) 27 European Energy and Environmental Law Review 6;

·       Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy and Natural Resources, Energy Research & Social Science (2018) 42, pp. 168–169;

·       Research Handbook on EU Energy Law and Policy (2018) Energy Research & Social Science, 42, 11–12.

·       Book Review of The International Law of the Sea by Donald R Rothwell, Tim Stephens (2017) European Energy and Environmental Law Review 26(6);

·       Validity of allowances under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (2017) 6(28) Environmental Law & Management; (2017) Environmental Liability;

·       Review of Balancing Human Rights, Environmental Protection and International Trade: Lessons from the EU Experience (2017) 42 European Law Review 1, 131-134; 

·       Review of The Oxford Handbook of International Climate Change Law, Oxford University Press (2017) Journal of Environmental Law, Volume 29, Issue 1, March 2017, Pages 197–201, https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqx008;

·       Review of Environmental Policy & Politics in the EU (2017) European Energy and Environmental Law Review;

·       Review of Capacity Mechanisms in the EU Energy Market (2017) 26(2) European Energy and Environmental Law Review 60-2;

·       Free Zones, Foreign Ownership and Tax Incentives for Foreign Direct Investment in Qatar (2016) 11-6 Global Trade & Customs Journal;

·       International investment law, trade in services and customs: legislative strategies for states hosting international competitive events (2017) 12-1 Global Trade & Customs Journal 39-45;

·       Reducing emissions and promoting energy efficiency in residential homes through reform of environmental taxation legislation (UTS: 2015) in 16th Global Conference on Environmental Taxation, conference proceedings;

·       The final Budget: the British Parliament’s missed opportunity on Aviation Taxation and the environment (2015) 43 International Tax Review; 

·       Aviation Tax, Free Trade and State Aid in the European Union: Ireland’s riddled Air Travel Tax (2015) EC Tax Review; Global Tax Weekly (2015);

·       Free Zones in the United Arab Emirates - Domestic and international tax issues (2015) 43 International Tax Review; Global Tax Weekly (2015);

·       Including Resource-rich growing GCC States in the Global Environmental Programme using Market Instruments: Focus upon Fuel Efficiency and Emissions in Imports of New Vehicles, in Market Instruments and Sustainable Economy, 12th Global Conference on Environmental Taxation (Institute for Fiscal Studies; Madrid, 2011);

·       Towards Overcoming the Conflict between Environmental Tax Leakage and Border Tax Adjustment Concessions for Developing Countries(2010) 12 Vermont Journal of Environmental Law 149-183;

·       Reforming the Air Passenger Duty as an Environmental Tax (2010-11) 12 Environmental Law Review 3 94-104;

·       Review of Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation: International and Comparative Perspectives, Volume VI (2010) 1 Environmental Liability 35.


Research Awards                                                                                                                    

·       2020 European Commission ERASMUS+: Jean Monnet Module: Doha Courses on EU Law (first in region to receive award): EUR 30,000

·       Qatar National Research Fund (NPRP-Cluster Grant 11th Cycle, 2018) NPRP11C-1229-170007: A Secure End-to-End Blockchain-Based Solution to Finance Trade: The Legal, Technological, and Economic Framework: $2.5m

·       Centre for Law and Development – Industrial sponsorships and Research Grant sponsorships: $2m+

·       Qatar National Research Fund, Fintech and Regtech: Building a resilient, inclusive and competitive legal and regulatory framework for 21st century finance in Qatar: $700,000                     

·       Qatar National Research Fund, Dangerous Driving Behavior Interventions Through the Usage of Telematics Data: Application to Young Drivers in Qatar: $573,000

·       Qatar National Research Fund, Legal Education & the Skills Market in Qatar: $500,000

·       Qatar National Research Fund, Legal Innovation to Empower Development: Designing and Building An Online “TradeLab” in Qatar”: $900,000                                                                

·       Research Priorities seed funding to establish an Integrated Environmental Sustainability Action Plan - Attaining sustainable air, water and food security in Qatar: $275,000                                                            

·       University Grant – Realising Qatar National Research Strategy Planning Area 1: Renewable Energy, Environmental Law & Sustainability:   $26,000

·       Research Project on Islamic Finance and Islamic Finance Dispute Resolution (Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Spain Comillas University Law School)

·      Qatar Foundation Grants - Qatar National Research Fund $60,000

·       Research Start-up Grant from Qatar University:$13,000

·       Research grants from Qatar University: $100,000

·       2 x Sponsorship from Chartered Institute of Taxation:  $10,000

·       Research Grant from the Sir Richard Stapely Educational Trust                             

·       Doctoral Scholarship from Newcastle University


Media 

·       New Statesman, How Saudi Arabia’s energy transition means more China and less US, 13-4-2021 https://investmentmonitor.ai/energy/saudi-energy-transition-china

·       New Statesman, The complicated business of investing in Saudi Arabia 3-12-2020 https://www.newstatesman.com/business/finance/2020/12/complicated-business-investing-saudi-arabia

·       New Statesman Investment Monitor, Do foreign investors love an authoritarian? 12-10-2020 https://investmentmonitor.ai/global/do-foreign-investors-love-a-strongman

·       The Independent, interview on Bitcoin causing climate change 30-10-2018 https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-nature-climate-change-environment-earth-a8607876.html

·       Newsweek, interview on Blockchain energy consumption article 1-08-2018 https://www.newsweek.com/stop-bitcoin-excessive-energy-consumption-environment-impact-1050798

·       Nature Middle East, interview on Blockchain article, 29-08-2018 doi:10.1038/nmiddleeast.2018.98 

·       Financial Times FDI magazine, Will Qiddiya tempt entertainment seekers from Dubai? 16/08/2018 https://www.fdiintelligence.com/Locations/Middle-East-Africa/Saudi-Arabia/Will-Qiddiya-tempt-entertainment-seekers-from-Dubai

·       Financial Times FDI magazine, Saudi’s Neom: utopian oasis or mirage in the desert? 12/02/2018 https://www.fdiintelligence.com/Locations/Middle-East-Africa/Saudi-s-Neom-utopian-oasis-or-mirage-in-the-desert

·       Financial Times FDI magazine, Saudi Arabia opens domestic work agencies to FDI 06/04/2018 https://www.fdiintelligence.com/News/Saudi-Arabia-opens-domestic-work-agencies-to-FDI

·       Al Jazeera English TV, 6pm live News 18:00: AT&T-Time Warner interview, 23-10-2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqry95SM_F4&feature=youtu.be

·       Al Jazeera English TV, 6pm live News 18:00: interview on counter terror finance, 27-4-2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6QQy-SP3DY&feature=youtu.be

·       Al Jazeera English TV, Inside Story televised debate: ‘Has austerity worked?’ 24-1-2014

·       Al Jazeera English TV, Inside Story televised debate: ‘Should leaders be tried for mismanagement?’ 25-4-2012

·       www.menaexecutivetraining.com


Selected conferences

·       Panellist at United Nations General Assembly, New York USA, September 2018 Cryptocurrencies & Blockchains – A New Boost For SDG-Financing? http://webtv.un.org/watch/cryptocurrencies-blockchains-–-a-new-boost-for-sdg-financing/5841823227001/

·       United Nations Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals, Singapore, November 2019

·       Convener and host of CLD Roundtables: Cybersecurity Law, October 2019

·       Convener and host of CLD Roundtables: Financial Technology Opportunities for Qatar, October 2018

·       Panel member at Baker Institute Roundtable on Energy Policy with QLC, Energy Ministry, and QU, 2017

·       Speaker at Law, Justice & Development Week, World Bank, Washington, D.C, November 2015.

·       Speaker at 2015 Global Conference on Environmental Taxation: Sydney, Australia, September 2015.

Publications