About
Dr Chukwuma Samuel Adesina Okoli is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool. He holds a PhD from the University of Luxembourg, obtained in 2018, and has an LLM from the University of Aberdeen, awarded in 2012. He completed his BL at the Nigerian Law School in Lagos in 2008 and earned his LLB from the University of Benin, Nigeria, in 2007.
Dr Okoli was an Assistant Professor in Commercial Conflict of Laws at the University of Birmingham from 2021 to 2026, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Institute/University of Amsterdam from 2019 to 2021 and served as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Luxembourg for four years.
He is a qualified Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and has provided consultancy services on Nigerian law. Dr Okoli is recognised globally for his contributions to the field of conflict of laws, international commercial litigation, and international civil procedure, with a particular focus on Africa, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Asia.
His research has attracted significant citations in both academic and practitioner literature, including Dicey, Morris & Collins on the Conflict of Laws. Dr Okoli is the author of four major books: Place of Performance: A Comparative Analysis; Private International Law in Nigeria (co-authored with Professor Richard Frimpong Oppong); Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Africa ( forthcoming and co-edited with Professor Beligh Elbalti); and Private International Law of Employment in Africa (forthcoming and co-authored with Professor Theophilus Edwin Coleman). He is also an editor of conflictoflaws.net and a co-founder of both the Nigerian Group on Private International Law and the Interest Group on Private International Law in Africa.
His research status and international reputation were recognised by the British Academy, which endorsed him under the Global Talent Visa (Exceptional Talent Route) in 2025 through a formal peer review process. He has been elected as an Associate Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law and has been invited to deliver a keynote address at the Asian Academy of Private International Law Conference in Kyoto, Japan, in December 2025.
Dr Okoli has provided expert evidence before courts in the Netherlands and South Africa and has been invited to provide expert evidence before the courts of England and Wales.