As of November 2021, Scientia Professor Ross Buckley holds the number one spot as the most downloaded legal scholar globally.
Scientia Professor Ross Buckley from UNSW Law & Justice, has claimed the title of most-read legal author in the world.
Every month, SSRN – an online database of scholarly research – ranks the top 30,000 legal authors according to the number of downloads they receive for each piece of research over the past 12 months.
Prior to the latest list released this week, SSRN consistently ranked Professor Cass Sunstein of Harvard University first, Prof. Buckley second, and Professor Douglas Arner, Prof. Buckley’s co-author from the University of Hong Kong in the third position.
But over the past year, the gap in the number of downloads between Prof. Sunstein and Prof. Buckley started to shrink.
Today, Prof. Buckley’s papers have been downloaded over 35,000 times in the past 12 months.
“My most downloaded paper is about The Evolution of FinTech. It has been downloaded over 29,000 times in the past six years and is still downloaded frequently. According to Google Scholar it has been cited over 930 times – an extraordinary number in law,” Prof. Buckley says.
FinTech – the application of technology to financial services, and RegTech – the application of technology to regulation, are fields that have become particularly relevant today with the world’s increased reliance on technology.
With a comprehensive expertise in FinTech, RegTech and cryptocurrencies, Prof. Buckley has been widely sought after by media outlets. He provided advice in the Australian Financial Review, The Conversation and Sydney Morning Herald and also wrote for the UNSW Newsroom and industry leaders such as KPMG.
Prof. Buckley’s current research focuses on how to build financial systems to promote sustainable development, and on legal reforms that would make cross-border payments much faster and far more affordable.
“For decades I laboured away writing scholarship that was read and valued by a very small audience. However, one really writes to be read and have impact. In this regard being the most downloaded legal scholar in the world is enormously satisfying,” Prof. Buckley says.