Law and Financial Markets Project

6 June 2017  4pm-6pm   
Unbundled commissions under MiFid II and their potential impact on U.S. soft dollar arrangements

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Since 1975, investment advisers in the United States have been permitted to pay excess brokerage commission on securities transactions and then utilize those excess payments –commonly known as “soft dollars” — to purchase research services and thereby subsidize the investment advisers’ own operating costs. Over the past four decades, the SEC has made fitful attempts to curtail the practice and enhance the transparency of soft dollar payments, but has been routinely thwarted by a financial services industry that profits from soft dollars and strives to keep the payments obscure and undiminished. In the past few years, however, financial authorities in the EU, UK and Canada have taken a fresh look at excessive brokerage commissions under MiFID II and are moving towards regulatory reforms that force the unbundling of commission charges.

Speaker: Howell Jackson (Harvard)
Commentators: John Armour (Oxford); Tim Tachi (TT International)
Chair: Philipp Paech (LSE)

26 May 2017  9am-5pm 

Blockchain financial assets and beyond: legal and regulatory perspectives

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Click here for presentations and papers

Blockchain (or distributed ledger) technology and smart contracts may soon be used to hold and transfer financial assets, such as currency, securities and derivatives. A consistent analysis of the new technology’s impact on the law and regulation underlying financial markets and on wider legal issues has yet to be undertaken. Academia, regulators, lawmakers and the financial industry have to unite in this exercise and develop the axioms of a legal and regulatory framework that follows a universal conception, as the potential and the limits of the new technology are of universal concern. This conference is conceived to kick-start global discussion.

Organiser:
Philipp Paech (LSE Law)

Moderators:
Martin Walker (Journalist, Finadium)
Isabella Kaminska (Journalist, Financial Times)

Speakers:
Michael Krimminger (Cleary Gottlieb)
Marc Robert-Nicoud (Clearstream)
Eva Micheler (LSE Law)
Colin Platt (DPactum)
Corinne Zellweger-Gutknecht (University of Zurich)
Klaus Löber (European Central Bank)
Lee Braine (Barclays)
Philipp Paech (LSE Law)
Hans Kuhn (University of Lucerne)
Kevin D. Werbach (University of Pennsylvania)

25 May 2017  All day event   

LSE-Oxford law and finance conference

Organiser: Professor David Kershaw (LSE Law)

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18 May 2017   2pm-5pm 

International finance, party autonomy and public interest

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The rules governing financial markets are subject to the tensions emerging between a plethora of private and public interests. Modern economies provide for party autonomy as the more efficient concept to govern the market. Hence, in principle, private interest and contractual freedom are the rules’ organising principles. However, various public interests limit contractual freedom and party autonomy. They may come as mandatory rules that apply in insolvency proceedings, or as restrictions to the choice of law and of court, or they may present themselves in the form of regulation. This workshop seeks to clarify the areas of the law governing the financial market that are subject to party autonomy or mandatory rules, respectively, pointing in particular to areas where a clear-cut answer cannot be given.

Organiser: Philipp Paech (LSE Law)

Chair: Prof Roy Good

Speakers:
Philipp Paech (LSE)
Stéphanie Francq (Louvain la neuve)
Jan Kleinheisterkamp (LSE)
Matthias Lehman (Bonn)

23 March 2017  6pm-7.30pm 

Financial institutions and human tights: What is the Dutch Banking Sector Agreement on human rights, and should UK financial institutions follow suit?

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This event is a unique chance to hear first-hand about the experience of the Dutch Banking Association in forging the Agreement and explore with Dutch and UK banks the Agreement's potential to effectively ensure the respect for human rights. The event is targeted at bankers, representatives of financial institutions and financial lawyers in the UK. It is also useful for academics and students interested in business and human rights and finance and banking law and policy.

Speakers: 
Sharon van Ede (Sustainability Advisor, Dutch Banking Association); 
Arnaud Cohen Stuart (Head of Business Ethics, ING);
Simon Connell (Director, Sustainability, Standard Chartered)

22 March 2017  5.30pm-7pm 

Short termism in financial markets: Fact and frenzy

Speaker: Professor Mark Roe (David Berg Professor of Corporate Law, Harvard Law School)

In his lecture, Professor Mark Roe will challenge some of the recent claims made about the relationship between market short termism and short-termism in the boardroom. In particular, he will explore the preconditions for market short termism to be transmitted into the boardroom. For attendees interested in exploring Professor Roe’s publication on this issue, please see: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers2.cfm?abstract_id=2239132>

14 March 2017  12pm - 5.30pm  

Corporate law in historical perspective

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10 January 2017  6.30pm - 8pm 

Financial regulation: Back to the future?

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The global financial crisis caused massive unemployment, destroyed trillions in wealth, and triggered an international effort to strengthen the regulation of financial markets and institutions. Will the Brexit referendum and the 2016 U.S. election bring fundamental changes to that path?

The lecture will be given by Timothy G. Massad who has been on the front lines of the U.S. effort to combat the crisis and reform the international financial regulatory system, currently as Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and formerly as Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability at the U.S. Treasury.

Speaker: Timothy G. Massad (Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission)

Chair: Dr Eva Micheler (SRC and LSE Law)

10 June 2016   8.50am-5.30pm  

Blockchain and financial markets technology: Perspectives from law, finance and computer science

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Blockchain technology was first invented to facilitate Bitcoin. A blockchain is an electronic record. Similar to a land register it contains all transactions that are entered into between market participants. There is, however, no central authority or other intermediary. The blockchain is updated on the basis of a consensus of the majority of the participants in the system. Once entered the information cannot be erased. A blockchain thus creates a certain and verifiable digital record.

Organisers: Eva Micheler (Law and Financial Markets Project and Systemic Risk Centre, LSE) and Jon Danielsson (Systemic Risk Centre, LSE)

17 November 2015  4pm-6pm 
The Lloyd's crisis and its resolution: Legal aspects

Lloyd’s of London is a long-revered British Institution, dating from the 17th century and one the world’s largest insurance markets. It came very close to collapsing as a result of large-scale losses suffered in the 1980s and 1990s. Many lessons are to be learnt from the crisis experienced by Lloyd’s, both in economic and legal terms, as well as from Lloyd’s remarkable recovery and transformation, which demonstrates the institution’s resilience. This event aims to shed light on the legal aspects of the Lloyd’s Crisis and to tease out the lessons learnt. 

Speakers:

Andrew Duguid  (Author of On the Brink, How a Crisis Transformed Lloyd's of London, Palgrave 2014. Formerly, advisor to the Council of Lloyd’s)

Graham Nicholson (Former Chief Legal Advisor, Bank of England; previously with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (advising Lloyd’s, in particular regarding Equitas))

Adam Ridley (Member of the Council of Lloyd’s and of the Lloyd’s Regulatory Board from 1997 to 1999, subsequently Chair of the independent "Names' Committee" set up by Lloyd's and Chair until 2014 of the Trustees of Equitas.)

Julian Burling (Barrister, Serle Court; Counsel to Lloyd’s 1995 to 2010. Author of Lloyd’s: Law and Practice. Informa 2013. )

Chair: Charles Goodhart (LSE)

Organisers: Miriam Goldby and Rosa Lastra (Insurance Law Institute, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, QMUL); Eva Micheler (Systemic Risk Centre and Law and Financial Markets Project, LSE)

20 May 2015  5.30pm-7.30pm  

Market manipulation, HFT and algorithmic trading

See flyer for full details

Speaker: Jamie Symington (Director of Enforcement, Financial Conduct Authority)

12 March 2015   6.30pm-8pm

Law, finance and the abyss

Chair: Eva Micheler - Associate Professor (Reader) in Law at LSE

Speakers: Katharina Pistor  (Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law, Columbia Law School);  Julia Black (Professor of Law and Pro-Director for Research, LSE);  Jon Danielson (Director Systemic Risk Centre, Reader in Finance); Charles Goodhart (Emeritus Professor, LSE)

In financial markets law and finance are intrinsically connected. Law underpins markets. Finance applies the tools provided for by the law but also continuously tests the boundaries set by law.

When markets collapse, however, legal rules are pushed into the background and other forces take over determining the way in which actors respond to systemic events.

25 February 2015  5pm-8pm  

Responses to the G-20 derivatives reform agenda beyond Dodd-Frank and EMIR

Speaker: David Murphy ((Senior Policy Adviser, The Bank of England)
LSE Convenor: Dr Jo Braithwaite (LSE Law)
Information file [Moodle] 

28 January 2015  6pm-7:30 pm

Going beyond the homo economicus in executive incentives

Speaker: Simon C.Y. Wong (Northwestern University & LSE)
FT article file [Moodle]

13 January 2015  6pm - 7:30 pm

Active shareholders and European takeover regulation

Speaker: Prof Martin Winner (Vienna University of Economics and Business & Austrian Takeover Commission)

Chair: Edmund-Philipp Schuster

19 November 2014  6pm-7:30 pm 

Shareholder empowerment and bank bailouts

Speakers: Prof David Kershaw; Edmund-Philipp Schuster
Information file [Moodle]

5 November 2014  6pm-7:30 pm 

Are EU banks safe?

Speaker: Dr Roel Theissen
Information file [Moodle]

22 October 2014  6pm-7.30pm

Fit for purpose? Does UK company law contribute to short termism in UK companies?

Chair: Sir Geoffrey Owen (LSE)

Speakers: Ian Gilham (Chairman, Horizon Discovery Plc); Professor David Kershaw (LSE); William Underhill (Partner at Slaughter & May, London)

Whether or not managers of UK companies are subject to short term pressures is one of the most important current policy debates. The mechanisms through which institutional investors invest in capital markets are thought to be subject to several pressures to invest with the short rather than the long term in mind. The remuneration structures and reporting requirement of fund managers provide one such example of such pressures. However as Professor Roe of the Harvard Law School has argued, in order for capital market short termism to be translated into business short termism there needs to be a transmission mechanism to transfer such pressures into the board room.

16 October 2014 9.30am-5.30pm

Perspectives on systemic risk

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Organisers: Jon Danielsson (SRC) and Eva Micheler (Department of Law, LSE)

Systemic financial risk can be caused by many factors such as: financial decisions, legal and accounting rules, and politics. While all of these factors can on their own trigger systemic events, it is the interaction between them which is especially dangerous because it creates new avenues for vicious feedback loops. Unfortunately, these channels for systemic risk are usually studied within disciplinary silos, giving us a rather fragmented understanding of how systemic risk is created. The aim of the conference is to bring together speakers from accounting, economics, finance, law and political science to break down these silos and present a more complete analysis of the nature of systemic risk

14 October 2014  6pm-7:30 pm

Minilateralism: How trade alliances, soft law and financial engineering are redefining economic statecraft

Speaker: Prof Chris Brummer (Georgetown)
Chair: Prof Niamh Moloney
Information file [Moodle]

24 March 2014 

Intermediated securities and investor rights

On 24 March 2014, Dr. Eva Micheler organised a conference entitled 'Intermediated Securities and Investor Rights'. The event was funded by the Law and Financial Markets Project and the Systemic Risk Centre. The aim of the conference was to determine whether the law is able to ensure that securities continue to be negotiable. The main question was whether it is possible to conclude that holding and lending chains have become too complex and inter-connected that investors are systemically compromised in their ability to exercise rights against the issuers.

The event was oversubscribed and attended by regulators, practitioners as well as academics. The contributions made by participants showed that the event raised questions of fundamental importance to the current debate on stewardship, investor rights, corporate governance and also on systemic risk in financial markets. It added a new perspective on both the discussion on intermediated securities and the discussion on stewardship and corporate governance.

The program, a conference report and selected slides can be found here:

Programme  &  Conference Report

David Herzell   ;   Eva Micheler   ;    Klaus Loeber   ;    Pablo Iglesias-Rodriguez 

Pierre Beck   ;   John Kay   ;   Sarah Paterson

22 January 2014  6.00-7.30pm
Modern issues in international commercial law: Can we hold a legal dialogue across the Channel?

Speaker: Jean-François Riffard (University of Auvergne, School of Law)
Chair: Eva Micheler (LSE, Law Department)

11 December 2013  5pm-6.30pm  
International legal risks for banks and corporates 

Philip Wood, QC (Hon.) Special Global Counsel, Allen & Overy LLPChair: Professor David Kershaw (LSE, Department of Law)

5 December 2013    6pm-7.30pm

The role of the sharia scholar in Islamic Finance

Details of the Islamic Finance series

Speaker: Sheikh Nizam Yaquby

20 November 2013   6pm-7.30pm 

One step ahead: Private equity and hedge funds after the global financial crisis

Speaker: Timothy Spangler, Partner (Kaye Scholer) and Adjunct Professor (UCLA)

As the recession stutters onwards systemic and structural causes for the financial crash continue to dominate international news and debate. Despite public interest, alternative investment vehicles such as private equity and hedge funds remain elusive. Both have always had a unique position in the market, designed as they are to function outside of the rules that govern other financial organizations. But what is it that they do and - significantly - how is it that they have prospered since the 2008 meltdown despite the introduction of new regulatory regimes? , Timothy Spangler, author of the award-winning book ‘One Step Ahead’, explores how the structures of alternative investment funds enable them to adapt and react to global financial conditions. The seminar focus ranges from small start-ups to the titans of the industry. It explores how private equity and hedge funds operate, drive economic growth, and have become essential vehicles for investment for both public and private sectors the world over.
Chair: Professor Julia Black (LSE, Department of Law)

13 November 2013   6pm-7.30pm

The ubiquitous role of financial collateral

Speaker: David Murphy (Rivast consulting, formerly ISDA)

Post crisis financial reforms have handed a central role to collateral. It is required for many bilateral derivatives transactions; it is a central risk mitigant in central clearing; and it will be required for many intragroup exposures as local capital and liquidity requirements are imposed. At the same time, unsecured interbank credit is declining importance, with many banks instead relying on collateralised central bank funding. It is therefore timely to investigate the role of collateral in the financial system, the legal infrastructure which supports its use, and the dynamics of collateralised transactions. In this context the phenomenon of procyclicality naturally arises. Thus while supervisors have determined that in the large there is enough high quality collateral available, short term increases in collateral requirements can be de-stabilising. We examine this issue, highlighting the delicate balance between collateral-as-credit-risk-mitigant and collateral-as-liquidity-risk-creator.   Chair: Dr Jo Braithwaite (LSE, Department of Law)

13 November 2013   6pm-7.30pm

Ethics, interest and finance

Details of the Islamic Finance series

Speaker: Ann Pettifor (Director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics, PRIME)

6 November 2013   6pm-7.30pm

Islamic Finance and derivatives

Details of the Islamic Finance series

Speaker: Habib Motani (Partner, Clifford Chance)

30 October 2013   6pm-7.30pm

Intellectual property financing: the work of UNCITRAL

Speaker: Spyridon Bazinas (Senior Legal Officer, UNCITRAL Secretariat)

Economic development increasingly depends on innovative ideas that often become the subject of intellectual property rights. Yet, more often than not, while there is no sufficient funding to create or develop intellectual property, using intellectual property as collateral for credit is from difficult to impossible. The main reason is the fact that intellectual property law is not sufficiently coordinated with secured financing law. Matters become even more complex when a transaction involves a portfolio of intellectual property rights protected under the laws of several countries and the question of applicable law arises, or when a licensor or licensee of intellectual property becomes insolvent. The lecture will examine how the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions: Supplement on Security Interests in Intellectual Property (2010) addresses all these issues. More specifically, the lecture will examine the interaction of secured financing and intellectual property law, types of intellectual property financing practices, the creation, registration/perfection, priority and enforcement of a security interest in intellectual property, acquisition financing with respect to intellectual property, law applicable to a security interest in intellectual property and the impact of insolvency of a licensor or licensee of intellectual property.  Chair: Professor Michael Bridge (LSE, Department of Law)

30 October2013    6pm-7.30pm

Debt financing and sukuk

Details of the Islamic Finance series

Speaker: Roger Wedderburn-Day (Partner, Allen & Overy)

28 October 2013   6pm-7pm
Introduction to Islamic Finance: Concepts and structures

Details of the Islamic Finance series

Speaker: Bi Farmida (Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright)

10 October 2013

Law after Lehmans

To mark the fifth anniversary of the collapse of the Lehman Brothers group, the LSE Department of Law and the LSE Law and Financial Markets Project is organising a half-day workshop, ‘Law after Lehmans’. ...

The objective of the event is to consider the impact of Lehmans-related cases on the English law. Speakers will be attending from, inter alia, PWC, City law firms, the Bar, LSE and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

It is widely acknowledged that the collapse of the Lehman Brothers group was one of the most significant events in the global financial crisis. In the short-term, the group's collapse brought the world’s financial system to the brink of disaster. In the longer-term, these events have had an obvious and profound effect on worldwide programmes of financial regulatory reform. This spike of new regulation has been extensively debated by practitioners and academics alike. The cumulative effects of the Lehmans-related cases have, however, received comparatively little attention, and it is this imbalance that the workshop aims to redress. The cases will be considered in terms of their impact on different elements of English law, namely, property rights, contractual interpretation and insolvency law.

related publication:
Jo Braithwaite, 'Law after Lehmans' LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series 11/2014

9 October 2013 6pm-7.30pm

The history and evolution of Islamic Finance

Details of the Islamic Finance series

Speaker: Iqbal Khan (CEO, Fajr Capital)

24 April 2013

The global financial crisis: The case for a criminal response

Colloquium organised by Jonathan Fisher QC with David Greene QC.
The paper summarising the discussions and exploring the case for a stronger criminal response by UK law enforcement authorities to the global financial crisis is available here.

LLM : Banking Law and Financial Regulation

LLM : Corporate Law and Securities Law

Short Course on Financial Services and Markets Regulation

Law Summer School : LL206: International Financial Law

Law Summer School : LL135: Introduction to Corporate Law and Governance

Law Summer School : LL207: International Financial Regulation

Law Summer School : LL301: European Company Law

Gerner-Beuerle, Carsten (2017) Law and finance in emerging economies: Germany and Britain 1800-1913. The Modern Law Review, 80 (2). pp. 263-298

Moloney, Niamh (2017) EU financial governance and transparency regulation: a test for the effectiveness of post-crisis administrative governance. In: Busch, Danny and Ferrarini, Guido, (eds.) Regulation of the EU Financial Markets: MiFID II and MiFIR. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Murphy, David and Braithwaite, Jo (2017) Central counterparties (CCPs) and the law of default management. Journal of Corporate Law Studies

Moloney, Niamh (2017) The European Union in international financial governance. RSF: Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 3 (1). pp. 138-152

Black, Julia (2017) ‘Says who?’ liquid authority and interpretive control in transnational regulatory regimes. International Theory  (In Press)

Moloney, Niamh (2017) EU financial governance and Brexit: institutional change or business as usual? European Law Review, 42 (1) (In Press)

Paterson, Sarah (2017) Debt restructuring and notions of fairness. The Modern Law Review .  (In Press)

Gerner-Beuerle, Carsten (2016) Diffusion of regulatory innovations: the case of corporate governance codes. Journal of Institutional Economics . pp. 1-33

Micheler, Eva (2016) Building a capital markets union – improving the market infrastructure. European Business Organization Law Review (EBOR), 17 (4). pp. 481-495

Micheler, Eva and von der Heyde, Luke (2016) Holding, clearing and settling securities through blockchain/distributed ledger technology: creating an efficient system by empowering investors. Journal of International Banking & Financial Law, 31 (11). 11 JIBFL 631.

Paterson, Sarah (2016) The paradox of alignment: agency problems and debt restructuring. European Business Organization Law Review, 17 (4). pp. 497-521. ISSN 1566-7529

Moloney, Niamh (2016) International financial governance, the EU, and Brexit: the ‘agencification’ of EU financial governance and the implications. European Business Organization Law Review (EBOR), 17 (4). pp. 451-480.

Baldwin, Robert and Black, Julia (2016) Driving priorities in risk-based regulation: what’s the problem? Journal of Law and Society, 43 (4). pp. 565-595.

Braithwaite, Jo (2016) The dilemma of client clearing in the OTC derivatives markets. European Business Organization Law Review, 17 (3). pp. 355-378.

Bridge, Michael G. (2016) Consequences of avoidance of the contract under the CISG. In: UNIDROIT, (corp. ed.) Eppur Si Muove: The Age of Uniform Law: Essays in Honour of Michael Joachim Bonell to Celebrate His 70th Birthday. UNIDROIT, Rome, Italy, pp. 1717-1733

Moloney, Niamh (2016) The 2013 Capital Requirements Directive IV and Capital Requirements Regulation: implications and institutional effects. Zeitschrift für öffentliches Recht, 71 (3). pp. 385-423

Moloney, Niamh (2016) Institutional governance and capital markets union: incrementalism or a ‘big bang’? European Company and Financial Law Review, 13 (2). pp. 376-423.

Moloney, Niamh (2016) Capital markets union: "ever closer union" for the EU financial system. European Law Review, 41 (3). pp. 307-337

Beale, Hugh, Gullifer, Louise and Paterson, Sarah (2016) A case for interfering with freedom of contract? An empirically-informed study of bans of assignment. Journal of Business Law, 3 . pp. 203-230

Kershaw, David (2016) Principles of takeover regulation. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Ferreira, Daniel, Kershaw, David, Kirchmaier, Tom and Schuster, Edmund (2016) Measuring management insulation from shareholder pressure. LSE Law, Society and Economy Working Paper Series, Working Paper No. 01/2016. London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Law, London, UK.

Hadjiemmanuil, Christos (2016) Bank resolution financing in the banking union. In: Binder, Jens-Hinrich and Singh, Dalvinder, (eds.) Bank Resolution: The European Regime. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. (In Press)

Paech, Philipp (2016) The value of financial market insolvency safe harbours. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies . pp. 1-30

Moloney, Niamh (2016) Financial services, the EU, and Brexit: an uncertain future for the city? German Law Journal, 17 . pp. 75-82.

Braithwaite, Jo (2016) The origins and implications of contractual estoppel. Law Quarterly Review, 132 . pp. 120-147

Bridge, Michael G. (2016) The nature of assignment and non-assignment clauses. Law Quarterly Review, 2016 (1)

Braithwaite, Jo and Murphy, David (2016) Got to be certain: the legal framework for CCP default management processes. Financial Stability Papers series, Bank of England, London, UK. (In Press)

Bridge, Michael (2016) Remedies and damages. In: DiMatteo, Larry A., Janssen, André , Magnus , Ulrich and Schulze, Reiner, (eds.) International Sales Law: Contract, Principles & Practice. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaf / Verlag C.H.BECK oHG / Hart Publishing, Baden-Baden, Germany, pp. 529-586.

Bridge, Michael G. (2016) Good faith, the common law and the CISG. Uniform Law Review .  (In Press)

Bridge, Michael G. (2016) Markets and damages in sale of goods cases. Law Quarterly Review . (In Press)

Bridge, Michael G. (2016) Risk of loss. In: DiMatteo, Larry A., Janssen, André, Magnus, Ulrich and Schulze, Reiner, (eds.) International Sales Law: Contract, Principles & Practice. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaf / Verlag C.H.BECK oHG / Hart Publishing, Baden-Baden, Germany, pp. 635-664.

Donaldson, Jason, Roderick and Micheler, Eva (2016) Resaleable debt and systemic risk. Journal of Financial Economics .  (In Press)

Moloney, Niamh (2016) Conduct rules and investor protection: the evolution of the EU’s approach. In: Casper, M., Klöhn, L. and Schmies, C., (eds.) Festschrift für Johannes Köndgen. RWS Verlag, Köln, Germany.

Paech, Philipp (2016) Securities, intermediation and the blockchain: an inevitable choice between liquidity and legal certainty? Uniform Law Review - Revue de droit uniforme .  (In Press)

Paterson, Sarah (2015) Rethinking corporate bankruptcy theory in the twenty-first century. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies .

Hadjiemmanuil, Christos (2015) Bank stakeholders’ mandatory contribution to resolution financing: principle and ambiguities of bail-in. In: ECB Legal Conference 2015: From Monetary Union to Banking Union, on the Way to Capital Markets Union, New Opportunities for European Integration. European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, pp. 225-248.

Micheler, Eva (2015) Custody chains and asset values: why crypto-securities are worth contemplating. Cambridge Law Journal, 73 (3). pp. 505-533.

Hadjiemmanuil, Christos (2015) The banking union and its implications for private law: a comment. EUI Working Paper RSCAS, 74. European University Institute (EUI), Florence, Italy.

Bridge, Michael (2015) Insolvency. In: Burrows, Andrew, (ed.) Principles of English Commercial Law. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 353-419.

Who Should prosecute fraud, corruption and financial markets crime? 

In this briefing, Jonathan Fisher QC argues that City fraud, financial markets offences and corruption should be investigated and prosecuted by a single enforcement authority instead of the multiplicity of agencies currently involved. The recent establishment of the Economic Crime Command at the National Crime Agency has muddied the waters further. It is high time for the Government to deliver on its Coalition Agreement commitment by allowing the Serious Fraud Office to mutate into an enlarged new economic crime-busting agency, leaving the Financial Conduct Authority to concentrate on the imposition of civil penalties for regulatory and compliance breaches which do not demand a criminal response.
 

Philipp Paech, Shadow banking – legal issues regarding collateral and insolvency law Briefing for the European Parliament’s ECON Committee (2013) 

In its first part, the paper addresses issues relating to close-out netting and bank insolvency. In many financial markets repurchase agreements (repos) and securities lending agreements benefit from special insolvency treatment which - broadly speaking - consists of an exemption from a number of insolvency law mechanisms. There was some discussion triggered by the Financial Stability Board’s Recommendation 13 on repos and securities lending, aiming at changes of the special insolvency treatment of these transactions. However, this analysis submits that no changes should be made in this regard. Instead, the regulators should be given the power to temporarily stay close-out netting, as in bank resolution proceedings. At the same time, regulatory haircuts to collateral assets (FSB Recommendations 6 and 7) may buffer systemic consequences but are unable to act as a circuit breaker. In its second part, the paper addresses legal uncertainty in relation to proprietary interests in collateral securities. Repo and securities lending collateral assets face increased enforcement difficulties in cross-border settings, stemming from different national rules regarding good-faith acquisition and close-out netting. Haircuts, as proposed by some commentators, are not an appropriate solution. Instead, only harmonisation of securities law and of the relevant insolvency rules can guarantee a consistent cross-border framework.
 

Criminalising bank managers (Julia Black and David Kershaw, Professors of Law, LSE).

This Policy Briefing evaluates the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards recommendation to criminalise the reckless behaviour of senior bank managers.
 

The Commission on Banking Standards Report and Bank Incentives: A missed opportunity (Julia Black and David Kershaw, Professors of Law, LSE) 

This Policy Briefing asks whether the Commission has missed an opportunity to address the skewed incentives for bank managers created by the UK’s system of corporate law and governance.