Professor Michael Bridge, NAB 6.21

LLM only.

This course is capped at 30 students. Students must apply through Graduate Course Choice on LSEforYou.

This course deals with the various ways in which creditors improve their prospects of being repaid loans they have made to (principally corporate) debtors. The primary focus will be on proprietary security, whether it takes the form of mortgage, charge or pledge. In addition, extensive treatment will be given to proprietary devices, not traditionally viewed as security, which serve the same functional purpose as security (quasi-security). The various transactions giving rise to security and quasi-security will be dealt with, as also will the types of asset than can be made available to serve a security purpose. Priority issues will also be considered in the event of a conflict of interests among a debtor's creditors, as well as the various ways in which creditors may have to give public notice of their interests. In the event of default by debtors, the ways in which creditors have recourse to assets the subject of security and quasi-security will be discussed. An important feature of security and quasi-security relates to the way they are effective in insolvency proceedings. Consideration will also be given to proposals for reforming the law and to the alternative approaches that might be taken. The course is centred on English law but deals at length with other systems of law (e.g., US and civilian systems) and with international instruments and conventions promulgated and sponsored by bodies such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (Unidroit) and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). The course also deals with the effect of European Directives on the law of security and quasi-security.

20 hours of seminars in the MT and LT. Four hours of seminars in the ST.

Unless they opt to write a dissertation in the subject, students will be required to write at least one essay of 2,000 words.

H Beale, M Bridge, L Gullifer and E Lomnicka, Personal Property Security (2007); M Bridge, Personal Property Law (3rd ed 2002); R Calnan, Taking Security over Personal Property (2007); E Ferran, Principles of Corporate Finance Law (2008); R M Goode, Legal Problems of Credit and Security (4th ed by L Gullifer 2008); R M Goode, Principles of Corporate Insolvency Law (3rd ed 2005); G McCormack, Secured Credit under English and American Law (2004); Palmer's Company Law (1992 looseleaf), chapter 13; H C Sigman and E-M Kieninger, Cross-Border Security over Tangibles (2007); H C Sigman and E-M Kieninger, Cross-Border Security over Intangibles (2009 forthcoming).

One three-hour exam (100%) in the ST.