Michael Wilderspin is a former legal adviser to the European Commission (2002-2021) with special responsibility for private international law since 2008. He has been involved with the Brussels IIa Regulation since its entry into force in 2004 and handled numerous cases on the regulation referred to the European Court on behalf of the Commission. He was also involved in preparing the new version of the Regulation, Brussels IIa. Michael Wilderspin also served as a lecturer at Durham University, Université Panthéon-Assas Paris II, and Université Catholique de Louvain, and was Visiting Professor at the Université Lyon-III. His former publications include The European Private International Law of Obligations (5th edition, 2019), co-edited with Sir Richard Plender.