This collection of essays is dedicated to Brian Harvey,the retired Professor of Property Law at the University of Birmingham. The contributions reflect his eclectic interests and bring new insights to issues of property law, both real and personal, consumer protection, auction sales and tax. Historical, human rights, public law, European Community and international aspects are addressed in addition to persistent domestic conveyancing concerns. Contributors: Peter Cook, David Feldman, Jonathan Harris, Tim Kaye, Jeremy McBride, Frank Meisel, Norman Palmer, Deborah Parry, David Salter, Carla Shapreau, John Stevens, Mark Thompson, Nick Wikeley and John Wylie.

A systemic risk event that leads to significant losses in banks that are significant financial institutions can expose them to insolvency, significant volatility and impose serious negative impact on a country's economy, as witnessed during the 2008 financial crash. The viral spread of operational losses through global markets by interconnected multinational banks can be referred to as idiosyncratic viral loss theory. Operational Risk Management in Banks and Idiosyncratic Loss Theory: A Leadership Perspective identifies important considerations that can bolster effective risk management practices in comprehensive enterprise-wide risk, fraud control, going beyond minimum risk assessment required by banking regulators as well as independent risk identification and management. These considerations towards improving risk management practices may help reduce systemic operational losses spread virally in banks. Operational Risk Management in Banks and Idiosyncratic Loss Theory is a useful tool for scholars, bank practitioners, regulators, and accountants to understand the behaviour of idiosyncratic viral losses in banks and in the use of effective risk management practices. Bank practitioners and regulators can leverage the suggestions made by the panel of sector experts and bank leaders to construct action plans and training programs.

Consumer Bankruptcy and over-indebtedness is an emerging field throughout the world. This book provides a comparative appraisal of global developments in this area. It is one of the first book length publications focusing on comparative consumer bankruptcy and over-indebtedness. It combines theoretical and empirical studies of bankruptcy regimes and consumer credit in civilian and common law jurisdictions as well as exploring current reform trends. The book will be of interest to academics, policymakers and law reformers as well as to practitioners.

Grounding its analysis in the historical evolution of financial regulation, this book addresses a range of public policy issues that concern the design of financial regulation and its enforcement, and contributes several new ideas to the debate in this field. Financial systems have become more competitive across sectors of financial institutions and nations, and direct regulations have been removed in pursuit of efficiency. However, as the risk of institutional failures has increased, de-regulation has had to be followed by re-regulation. In which form should this happen? This book answers this question. First revisiting the issue of "why to regulate", Padoa-Schioppa argues that the need to continue to regulate banks in a special way follows from their key role as liquidity providers. At the same time, his argument recognizes the need for close interplay in the regulation of different financial sectors. The book goes on to discuss "how" regulation should be carried out in the modern environment. It should be market-friendly, but the balance between official intervention and market discipline is difficult to get right. Moreover, in an increasingly international context, financial regulation has to be evenly applied across countries to avoid regulatory arbitrage. The final part of the book turns to issues specifically connected with developments in the European Union. One major issue is the maintenance of financial stability in the Euro area where the financial system is becoming especially integrated. Another major issue is the appropriate role of central banks. As the literature and practice are still very much under development, Padoa-Schioppa analyses the general aspects of the financial stability function of central banks - particularly in relation to the monetary policy and supervision functions - as well as the tools available for the Eurosystem.

Contracting with Companies surveys the main rules of company law governing the making of contracts with companies. It adopts an economic perspective, examining these rules in terms of the risks they apportion between companies and parties contracting with them. It reviews the use that has been made of economics in the analysis of company law and considers what guidance this can provide in analyzing corporate contracting. The book then examines the relevant law and the issues raised by this law, covering the role of corporate constitutions as the source of the authority of corporate agents, the mechanisms of corporate activity and decision-making, the identification of corporate contracting parties, pre-incorporation contracts and other contracts with non-existent companies, the contractual power of a company's board, the protection of parties dealing with subordinate corporate agents and the regulation of contracts in which a director has a conflict of interest.

The global financial and economic crisis which started in 2008 has had devastating effects around the globe. It has caused a rethinking in different areas of law, and posed new challenges to regulators and private actors alike. One of the emerging issues is the apparent eclipse of boundaries between different legal disciplines: financial and corporate lawyers have to learn how public law instruments can complement their traditional governance tools; conversely, public lawyers have had to come to understand the specificities of the financial markets they intend to regulate. While commentary on financial regulation and the global financial crisis abounds, it tends to remain within disciplinary boundaries. This volume not only brings together scholarship from different areas of law (constitutional and administrative law, EU law, financial law and regulation), but also from a variety of backgrounds (the academy, practice, policy-making) and a number of different jurisdictions. The volume illustrates how interdisciplinary scholarship belongs at the centre of any discussion of the economic crisis, and indeed regulation theory more generally. This is a timely exploration of cutting-edge issues of financial regulation.

Derivatives trading is now the world's biggest business, with an estimated daily turnover of over US$2.5 trillion and an annual growth rate of around 14 per cent. Derivatives markets have ancient origins, and a long and complex history of trading and regulation. This work examines the history of derivative contracts, their assignability and the regulation of derivatives markets from ancient Mesopotamia to the present day. The author concludes with an analysis of future regulatory prospects and of the implications of the historical data for derivatives trade and regulation.

Poor public resource management and the global financial crisis curbing fundamental fiscal space, millions thrown into poverty, and authoritarian regimes running successful criminal campaigns with the help of financial assistance are all phenomena that raise fundamental questions around finance and human rights. They also highlight the urgent need for more systematic and robust legal and economic thinking about sovereign finance and human rights. This edited collection aims to contribute to filling this gap by introducing novel legal theories and analyses of the links between sovereign debt and human rights from a variety of perspectives. These chapters include studies of financial complicity, UN sanctions, ethics, transitional justice, criminal law, insolvency proceedings, millennium development goals, global financial architecture, corporations, extraterritoriality, state of necessity, sovereign wealth and hedge funds, project financing, state responsibility, international financial institutions, the right to development, UN initiatives, litigation, as well as case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America. These chapters are then theorised by the editors in an introductory chapter. In July 2012 the UN Human Rights Council finally issued its own guidelines on foreign debt and human rights, yet much remains to be done to promote better understanding of the legal and economic implications of the interface between finance and human rights. This book will contribute to that understanding as well as help practitioners in their everyday work. The authors include world-renowned lawyers and economists, experienced practitioners and officials from international organisations.

This book addresses concerns with the international trade and investment dispute settlement systems from a statist perspective, at a time when multilateralism is deeply questioned by the forces of mega-regionalism and political and economic contestation. In covering recent case law and theoretical discussions, the book's contributors analyze the particularities of statehood and the limitations of the dispute settlement systems to judge sovereign actors as autonomous regulators. From a democratic deficit coupled with a deficit of legitimacy in relation to the questionable professionalism, independence and impartiality of adjudicators to the lack of consistency of decisions challenging essential public policies, trade and investment disputes have proven controversial. These challenges call for a rethinking of why, how and what for, are States judged. Based on a "sovereignty modern" approach, which takes into account the latest evolutions of a globalized trade and investment law struggling to put people's expectations at its core, the book provides a comprehensive framework and truly original perspective linking the various facets of "judicial activity" to the specific yet encompassing character of international law and the rule of law in international society. In doing so, it covers a large variety of issues such as global judicial capacity building and judicial professionalism from an international and domestic comparative angle, trade liberalisation and States' legitimate rights and expectations to protect societal values, the legal challenges of being a State claimant, the uses and misuses of imported legal concepts and principles in multidisciplinary adjudications and, lastly, the need to reunify international law on a (human) rights based approach.

The American cigarette industry is again facing enormous pressure from various groups whose goal is a smoke free society. What differentiates this present wave from the previous two waves of regulation faced by the cigarette industry is the severity with which these measures are applied by the state and local government who are enacting anti-smoking laws and regulations and increased excise taxes. Cigarette taxes are a lucrative revenue for the states, which they must ultimately trade-off with their stated goals of deterring smoking. Frequently, in spite of the needs of public health, states find themselves competing with one another for these excise tax revenues and cigarette sales, making them the primary point of challenge for the cigarette industry.

A critical examination of the wrongdoing underlying the 2008 financial crisis An unprecedented breakdown in the rule of law occurred in the United States after the 2008 financial collapse. Bank of America, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and other large banks settled securities fraud claims with the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to disclose the risks of subprime mortgages they sold to the investing public. But a corporation cannot commit fraud except through human beings working at and managing the firm. Rather than breaking up these powerful megabanks, essentially imposing a corporate death penalty, the government simply accepted fines that essentially punished innocent shareholders instead of senior leaders at the megabanks. It allowed the real wrongdoers to walk away from criminal responsibility. In The Case for the Corporate Death Penalty, Mary Kreiner Ramirez and Steven A. Ramirez examine the best available evidence about the wrongdoing underlying the financial crisis. They reveal that the government failed to use its most powerful law enforcement tools despite overwhelming proof of wide-ranging and large-scale fraud on Wall Street before, during, and after the crisis. The pattern of criminal indulgences exposes the onset of a new degree of crony capitalism in which the most economically and political powerful can commit financial crimes of vast scale with criminal and regulatory immunity. A new economic royalty has seized the commanding heights of our economy through their control of trillions in corporate and individual wealth and their ability to dispense patronage. The Case for the Corporate Death Penalty shows that this new lawlessness poses a profound threat that urgently demands political action and proposes attainable measures to restore the rule of law in the financial sector.

This book is an up-to-date analysis of current issues affecting marine insurance law and market practice. It is authoritative advice from leading specialists drawn from the academic and professional worlds. The book includes a comparative analysis of aspects of English, Scandinavian, and US law and practice. Its in-depth analysis on key topics is often only touched upon in textbooks. Topics covered include: marine policies and undisclosed principals * the shifting boundary between marine and non-marine risks * jurisdictional issues * piracy and terrorism under the Norwegian Insurance Plan * liability of marine insurers for late payment of indemnity * insuring negligence and due diligence risks * the new Institute Cargo Clauses 2009 * the concept of indemnity in marine insurance * insuring the consequences of unlawful acts committed by third parties * development in US marine insurance law * the Marine Insurance Act 1906 * the Institute Cargo Clauses (2009) A, B, and C * the Institute W

This volume examines the tax systems of some twenty countries to determine whether their tax laws are used to support growth and development across borders in lower-income and poor countries. Given the critical economic development needs of poorer countries and the importance of stability in these regions to the security of populations throughout the world, the use of a country's tax laws to support investment in the developing world gains crucial significance. This book explores whether international standards promoting the fundamental values of the major tax systems of the world accommodate incentives for these nations. In addition, it analyzes the way in which adoption of principles by higher income nations to protect their own revenue bases has a spill-over effect, impairing the ability of developing countries to sustain their economies. Following an introduction that synthesizes worldwide trends, the volume contains separate chapters for a variety of countries detailing the underlying goals and values of each system and the way in which the decision to employ (or not employ) incentives accommodates those ends. The chapters include reports for: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Maldives, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, and Venezuela. The volume memorializes the work of the General Reporter and National Reporters at the Taxation and Development session of the 19th Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law held in July, 2014, in Vienna, Austria.

Multilateral investment treaties (MITs) are international legal instruments whose purpose is to facilitate social and economic cooperation on a global scale. While there is abundant literature and precedent on MITs generally, authors Kabir Duggal and Mohamed Wahab provide some of the first analysis focusing on the execution of MITs in the Arab and Muslim-majority worlds in this volume of Brill Research Perspectives in Investment Arbitration. This book focuses on two MITs: the Unified Agreement for the Investment of Arab Capital in the Arab States (UAA) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Agreement for Promotion, Protection and Guarantee of Investments Among Member States (OIC). The UAA and OIC are among the oldest MITs in the world, enacted in 1980 and 1988, respectively. But only recently have these two long-dormant treaties acquired special significance. This book provides a comprehensive, critical review of these two treaties.

This textbook deals with the foundations and key issues of corporate insolvency law and approaches the topic from a comparative perspective, i.e. it does not concentrate on one insolvency law in particular but rather introduces the relevant rules from various jurisdictions, primarily England (and Wales), France, Germany, and those of the USA. It is case focused and designed for learning and teaching corporate insolvency law.

In today's increasingly global and integrated financial climate, there is an amplified need for cooperation between regulators and supervisors across the globe in order to promote economic growth and maintain competitive markets. However, idiosyncrasies remain within local markets, and for those wishing to participate within them, it is necessary to understand the distinctive qualities of each. This book explores the intermediaries of the Italian financial system. It examines the banks, investment services, electronic payment institutions, insurance companies and credit rating agencies functioning in the country, to explore how Italian regulation functions within the context of a wider harmonizing trend. The authors present a study on the current control models of the Italian markets in the wake of changes induced by the privatization of public banks, the increased size and complexity of the intermediaries, the increased level of competition, and the internationalization of the financial innovation. They explain how the country's financial markets are controlled by a combination of bodies, including the State, the authorities and the market participants themselves.

Taxes are sometimes so fundamental to domestic systems that they are almost impossible to change, as when the tax system is part of a nation's majority religion or is linked to another value deeply rooted in local communities, such as housing or farming. There is a danger in the WTO, a Geneva-based entity, making decisions for people living in distant locations with regard to tax issues related to their local needs and wants. The Saudi Arabian tax system exemplifies the tension between religion, tax and trade, because tax has a role in the country's religion and is an essential part of its laws.

Therefore, there is a need for maintaining a delicate balance between local needs and international commitments with respect to taxation. This book aims to show directions in which legal order can be preserved as much as possible from within each country, and yet not imposed upon them, and which will help build a peaceful bridge between local and international factors that are important to shaping the global order.

Non-State Regulatory Regimes explores how the concept of regulation continues to evolve. The focus is placed on those forms of regulation that are different from state regulation or present alternatives to state regulation. Departing from an analysis of the goals and policies of the traditional regulatory state, the emergence of 'regulation by other means' is examined. The approach is interdisciplinary encompassing various perspectives be they legal, political, international relations-based, economic, or sociological. The task of comprehending non-state regulation is a daunting one. To date, a number of essays already exist, which concentrate on specific aspects of the issue. In comparison to these essays, this study is innovative in that it applies a holistic view. Linking public policy approaches to regulation, it draws a theoretical path to understanding the emergence and persistence of non-state jurisdictional assertions and regulatory regimes.

This book examines powers and remedies available to a liquidator or administrator that render 'vulnerable' the company's prior contractual commitments or proprietary dispositions so as to enhance the asset pool available to creditors. In the process,the book does two things. First, it offers comprehensive accounts of the relevant causes of action: undervalue transactions, preferences, late floating charges, unregistered charges, transactions defrauding creditors, gratuitous corporate transactions and post-petition dispositions in liquidation. Secondly, it seeks to raise issues about the context and purpose of these causes of action, many of which have not yet been fully explored in the case law or academic literature. These are considered through a discussion of their relationship to the pari passu principle; a restitutionary analysis of the remedial provisions; and issues arising specifically in cross-border and international insolvency proceedings. The book is thus a source of reference both for insolvency litigators and for transactional lawyers seeking advice on potential vulnerability. The thematic approach and rigorous analysis will also make it of interest to an academic readership.

Undertakings for the Collective Investment of Transferable Securities (UCITS) involve collective investment funds, which are authorized to market their units among countries within the European Union. The objective of the original UCITS directive was to allow for open-ended funds investing in transferable securities to be subject to the same regulation in every Member State. It was hoped that once such legislative uniformity was established throughout Europe, funds authorized in one Member State could be sold to the public in each Member State without further authorization, thereby furthering the EU's goal of a single market for financial services in Europe. Unfortunately, the reality differed somewhat from the expectation. This insightful work examines the taxation of UCITS in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. It analyzes the tax consequences of the cross-border trade in units of UCITS for unitholders residing in the countries examined. It also features recommendations to remove the tax advantages and disadvantages that occur in cross-border trading.

Italian Banking and Financial Law provides a thorough overview of the banking sector in Italy, offering historical perspectives, insight into current developments and suggestions for future evolution.