"United States Securities Law: A Practical Guide" offers a concise overview of US securities laws from the perspective of a non-US participant. It is written not only for lawyers but for managers, bankers and others with an interest in the topic. This new edition has been significantly updated and expanded, including for the SEC's recent offering reforms and corporate governance developments.

In this innovative and exhaustive study, Steven A. Ramirez posits that the subprime mortgage crisis, as well as the global macroeconomic catastrophe it spawned, is traceable to a gross failure of law. The rule of law must appropriately channel and constrain the exercise of economic and political power. Used effectively, it ensures that economic opportunity isn't limited to a small group of elites that enjoy growth at the expense of many, particularly those in vulnerable economic situations. In Lawless Capitalism, Ramirez calls for the rule of law to displace crony capitalism. Only through the rule of law, he argues, can capitalism be reconstructed.

The European system of insurance supervision under Solvency II constitutes a parallel to supervision of credit institutions under Basel III. At the heart of this new European insurance supervisory regime are the Solvency II Directive, the attendant regulation, and the EIOPA Regulation. The present volume, "Treatises on Solvency II", includes articles on the bases of European insurance supervision and the associated three pillars of solvency, governance, and disclosure, all viewed predominantly from a legal standpoint.

As the United States banking system enters the 1990s, the industry and its regulators face a crisis of major proportions. Successive problems have plagued various lending markets, bank failure rates have increased, and traditional regulatory techniques of risk control have proved unsuccessful. In this work, Helen A. Garten examines the current crisis in bank regulation and the regulatory response. In addition, she provides a series of recommendations for reforming the system so that regulatory failure will not occur again.

Garten begins her study with a strategic view of bank regulation as a response to financial crises in the banking business. Just as the bank failures of the 1930s led to a radical shift in bank regulatory technique, recent competitive pressures and technological innovations that have lessened the profitability of the deposit-lending business are leading to a shift in regulatory strategy today. Although some deregulation has taken place, Garten contends that more significant changes are occurring in the regulation that remains. Regulators are experimenting with a new approach to risk control that will create economic incentives for banks to adopt more successful investment strategies. Garten compares these new regulatory initiatives to the disciplinary techniques of the typical corporate equityholder and shows how they differ from the debtholder's techniques of traditional post-Depression bank regulation. She concludes that the new regulatory strategy may not be enough to help the banking industry emerge from its current difficulties. This work will be an essential resource for lawyers and bankers involved with regulatory policy, as well as for economists and scholars of finance and administrative law.

In the past twenty years action in respect of the profits of crime has moved rapidly up the criminal justice agenda. Not only may confiscation orders be made,but there are also now serious substantive criminal offences of laundering the proceeds of crime. Moreover, the consequences of the regulatory regimes put in place by the Money Laundering Regulations 1993 and the Financial Services Authority are very significant. This book examines critically the history, theory and practice of all these developments, culminating in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which marks another step in the move towards greater concentration both on the financial aspects of crime and on the internationalisation of criminal law. The Act puts in place the Assets Recovery Agency, which will be central to the strategy of targeting criminal monies and will have power to bring forfeiture proceedings without a prior criminal conviction and to raise assessments to taxation. The author subjects the law of laundering, especially the novel aspects of the Proceeds of Crime Act itself, to thorough analysis and a human rights' audit. Contents: Introduction; The Economics of Money Laundering; Theory: Justifications for Forfeiture, Confiscation, and Criminalisation; History of Forfeiture and Confiscation Provisions; The International Dimension; Forfeiture Provisions; Statutory Confiscation Provisions; Investigatory Powers; Beyond Confiscation - Criminalisation; Acquisition and Deployment of Money for Terrorism; Confiscation without Conviction - 'Civil Recovery'; Money Laundering and the Professions

Legal systems around the world vary widely in terms of how they deal with the transfer of and security interests in receivables. The aim of this book is to help international financiers and lawyers in relevant markets in their practice of international receivables financing. Substantively, this book analyses three types of receivables financing transactions, ie outright transfer, security transfer and security interests. This book covers comprehensive comparison and analysis of the laws on the transfer of and security interests in receivables of fifteen major jurisdictions, encompassing common law jurisdictions, Roman-Germanic jurisdictions and French-Napoleonic jurisdictions, as well as relevant EU Directives. To be more specific, this book compares and analyses the relevant legal systems of the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Korea, Japan, France, Belgium, England, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Furthermore, in order to analyse those legal systems from the international perspective, this book compares relevant international conventions; it also proposes to establish an international registration system for the transfer of and security interests in receivables.

This unique book covers all aspects of operating and maintaining a tax exempt organization, within federal and state laws, from creation to dissolution. It begins by defining the various functions of organizers; the types of organizations, including unincorporated associations, charitable trusts, foundations, and nonprofit corporations; and the duties and liabilities imposed by the law on such organizations. The author shows how to determine if the goals and purposes of the organization fit into the statutory scheme for obtaining tax exempt status and helps the reader to decide which type of organization will best suit his or her needs. He points out the advantages and disadvantages, the legal effect, and the requirements of each. Finally, he explains how to terminate a tax exempt organization and the consequences of termination.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Is harmonisation of European securities law a good idea? According to this original analysis, the answer is a qualified yes. If it can be done without undermining the various systems that now govern the custody and transfer of securities in national European jurisdictions, harmonisation will be well received. The author first shows that such an acceptable outcome is indeed possible, and then offers a detailed analysis of the form it might take. Along the way he compares the current infrastructure of securities law in three European countries (Belgium, France, and the Netherlands) with generally accepted standards of modern securities custody and transfer practice, as well as with the harmonisation inherent in the United States Universal Commercial Code.
Among the elements of securities law discussed in this comparative context are the following:
- eligible categories of securities;
- accountholder-intermediary relationship;
- intermediary insolvency;
- shortfalls;
- moment of transfer;
- enforcement of securities rights; and
- conflict of laws.
In approaching the actual form of a European securities instrument, the author considers important relevant initiatives taken by various groups, such as Unidroit, the Hague Convention on Private International Law, and some industry sectors.
As an in-depth contribution to this important aspect of the ongoing debate about the harmonisation of European private law, and as an assessment of the possible impact of harmonisation measures by means of a coherence account, this book will be especially valuable to European policymakers and securities regulatory officials. It will also interest practitioners and academics insuch diverse fields as commercial law, European law, insolvency law, contract law, and property law

This work aims to analyse substantive and conflict of laws rules regarding intermediated securities in a comparative way. For this purpose, it examines major jurisdictions' rules for intermediated securities and the intermediated securities holding systems, such as the rules of the German, US, Korean, Japanese and Swiss systems, as well as the relevant EU regimes and initiatives. Above all, it analyses the two international instruments related to intermediated securities, i.e. the Geneva Securities Convention and the Hague Securities Convention. Through a functional comparative approach based upon legal traditions of the various jurisdictions, this book gives readers theoretical and practical information on intermediated securities and their national and international aspects.

Transfer Pricing and Valuation in Corporate Taxation analyzes the disparities between both federal statutes and regulations, and r- ulations and administrative practice, in a highly controversial area of corporate tax policy: intra-company transfer pricing for tax p- poses. It addresses issues that often mean millions of dollars to in- vidual corporations, and a significant fraction of the federal gove- ment's revenue base. These disparities between law, regulations, and administrative practice are concerning on a number of grounds. First, they - pose considerable economic costs by inducing corporations to engage in a variety of "rent-seeking" activities designed to reduce their - pected tax liabilities, and by requiring the IRS to devote still more to enforcement efforts that are very often futile. Second, they are in- ; herently undemocratic. Administrative practice is currently ad hoc by relying on dispute resolution procedures that can and do yield very different settlements on disputed tax issues from one case to another, the IRS often ends up treating similarly situated cor- rations very differently. Moreover, to the extent that the disp- ity between statute and implementation reflects the IRS's failure to carry out Congress' will, the laws passed by duly elected officials are effectively being superseded by administrative procedure, developed incrementally by individuals who are not answerable to an electorate.

On 1 January 2016 the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) became fully operational. The SRM creates a framework for the uniform resolution of banks in the euro area and after the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), it is the second pillar of the European Banking Union. Whereas the SSM aims to reduce the risk of bank failure by unifying the supervision of banks, the SRM's aim is to increase the likelihood that a bank has been made "safe to fail", if it is likely to fail; and to reduce the risk of a government having to bail out a bank, if it actually fails. The key actor in the framework of the SRM is the Single Resolution Board (SRB). The SRB is the European agency responsible for the effective and consistent functioning of the SRM. This entails a responsibility for drawing up resolution plans and adopting decisions relating to resolution for the institutions that are within its realm. The actual execution of the adopted resolution scheme must be closely monitored by the SRB, but is carried out by the national resolution authorities (NRA). For institutions that fall outside the scope of the SRB's powers, the national resolution authorities are competent to adopt resolution plans and to take resolution decisions, albeit under oversight of the SRB. The SRB will be in charge of the Single Resolution Fund, a European pool of money that is transferred from domestic resolution funds, financed by the banking sector and set up to ensure that medium-term funding support is available while a credit institution is being restructured. This book takes stock after a year of application of the SRM and examines the situation from various perspectives: the perspective of the SRB, the NRA, the supervised bank and judicial protection. Special attention is given to the division of power between the SRB and the NRA and the impact on the supervised bank, the relationship and links between the SRM and the SSM and the query whether the right balance between national and supranational powers has been struck, also in view of the principle of subsidiarity. With contributions from Pierre E. Berger, Rudi Bonte, Evy De Batselier, Hans Gilliams, Stijn Goovaerts, Yves Herinckx, David Vanderstraeten and Eddy Wymeersch.

Because of its enormous economic power and susceptibility to corruption, public procurement - the purchase by government of goods and services - has come under increasing regulation as world trade expands. Three international leaders in public procurement law fully explain how the procurement award process must be managed to achieve its goals in global market economy. This work should educate government officials, trade lawyers, and students in how to comply with existing and emerging regulatory schemes as they: select a contractor and plan the contract, with detailed attention to terms, conditions and specifications; allow for national security, national industrial development, and environmental protection; get value for money and avoid waste of public funds; publicize contracts; combat corruption; secure successful completion of contracts; balance pressures to buy from domestic sources with the economic benefits of international competition; harness procurement power to promote social and environmental goals; enforce compliance with public procurement rules; and recognize circumstances under which discretion-based (rather than rules-based) initiatives may be more effective.

The major themes of financial regulation in the U.S., the EEC, and Japan are discussed in four interwoven, but independent, essays. The central focus is the protection of the financial system by insuring prudential rules against systemic risks, particularly through promoting capital adequacy by international and national agreement and with due consideration to the distinction between the banking and securities business. The work concludes with the assertion that international harmonization of regulation is necessary for the long-run efficiency of financial markets.

Banking Regulation in China provides an in-depth analysis of the country's contemporary banking regulatory system, focusing on regulation in practice. By drawing on public and private interest theories relating to bank regulation, He argues that controlled development of the banking sector transformed China's banks into more market-oriented institutions and increased public sector growth. This work proves that bank regulation is the primary means through which the Chinese government achieves its political and economic objectives rather than using it as a vehicle for maintaining efficient financial markets.

The global financial crisis that started in 2007 sparked several academic debates about the role that financial sector regulators played in the crisis and prompted policy reforms in the financial supervision architectures of several countries. This book focuses on the question of what accountability, independence, transparency and, more generally, governance mechanisms applicable to financial regulators can better contribute to building responsive, responsible and effective regulatory and supervisory frameworks that tackle the weaknesses of the pre-crisis regimes. It re-visits the concepts of accountability and independence of financial regulators as well as the main economic theories underlying financial services policy-making, in light of the crisis experience. In addition, it critically examines the post-crisis institutional frameworks of financial regulation and supervision in the EU, the US and Canada with a view to assessing whether the financial regulators of the post-global financial crisis era are well suited to effectively address the challenges and threats that global financial markets pose to the stability, integrity and good functioning of financial systems as well as to the protection of consumers, investors and society at large.

From the start of the financial crisis in 2007, which turned into an economic crisis soon afterwards, it was obvious that public law could not prevent the genesis of this crisis although it has adequate instruments to make a reoccurrence of such a crisis unlikely. Financial law, tax law and even aspects of criminal law are designed to regulate the behaviour of financial institutions and other corporations. Since public law was unable to avoid the 2007 crisis, there can only be one conclusion: its instruments did not work properly or, worse, were badly designed or applied. Since 2007, a lot has been done from a financial, tax or criminal law point of view, confirming this finding. Regulation has thus been at the centre of the financial and legal debate, but a real understanding of the lessons of the crisis also requires account to be taken of private law. Is there a possible connection between private law and the outbreak of a financial and economic crisis? And did private law institutions, mechanisms or instruments in their current design contribute to the crisis? Does private law provide institutions, mechanisms and/or instruments which might have prevented the genesis of a financial or economic crisis? If so, why did these institutions, mechanisms and instruments fail to do so? And is there a need for new or modified instruments to improve the impact of private law on events that may lead to a new crisis? This thought-provoking book makes it clear that private law and the possibility of a financial and economic crisis are strongly intertwined. It shows that private law provides as many useful institutions, mechanisms and instruments against the emergence of such a crisis as public law does. Few other books bring together so many leading legal scholars on private law and its effects and implications. This book is rigorous, thoughtful, enlightening and thought-provoking - a must-read.

This work describes how the rules of accounting are developed. It provides a new perspective on European accounting, showing how laws, standards, decrees and other regulations evolve, discussing and comparing the institutional settings and the legislative processes within each country. Each chapter has been written by a leading expert on financial accounting in the established countries of the European Union.