This book is about fiduciary law's influence on the financial economy's environmental performance, focusing on how the law affects responsible investing and considering possible legal reforms to shift financial markets closer towards sustainability. Fiduciary law governs how trustees, fund managers or other custodians administer the investment portfolios owned by beneficiaries. Written for a diverse audience, not just legal scholars, the book examines in a multi-jurisdictional context an array of philosophical, institutional and economic issues that have shaped the movement for responsible investing and its legal framework. Fiduciary law has acquired greater influence in the financial economy in tandem with the extraordinary recent growth of institutional funds such as pension plans and insurance company portfolios. While the fiduciary prejudice against responsible investing has somewhat waned in recent years, owing mainly to reinterpretations of fiduciary and trust law, significant barriers remain. This book advances the notion of 'nature's trust' to metaphorically signal how fiduciary responsibility should accommodate society's dependence on long-term environmental well-being. Financial institutions, managing vast investment portfolios on behalf of millions of beneficiaries, should manage those investments with regard to the broader social interest in sustaining ecological health. Even for their own financial self-interest, investors over the long-term should benefit from maintaining nature's capital. We should expect everyone to act in nature's trust, from individual funds to market regulators. The ancient public trust doctrine could be refashioned for stimulating this change, and sovereign wealth funds should take the lead in pioneering best practices for environmentally responsible investing.

Were the radical steps taken by the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve to avert the financial crisis legal? Was the general public so desperate for solutions that it failed to adequately question the legitimacy of the government's actions? In Legality, Legitimacy, and the Responses to the Financial Crisis of 2008, Philip Wallach chronicles and analyzes the legal and political controversies surrounding the government's responses to the recent financial crisis. The economic devastation left behind is well-known, but some allege that even more lasting harm was inflicted on America's rule of law tradition and government legitimacy by the ambitious attempts to limit the fallout. Wallach addresses these concerns, exploring the much-neglected legal and political controversies that surrounded the government's crisis decisions while also providing a searching inquiry into the meaning of the rule of law during crises. The book provides a legally-detailed analysis of the policies undertaken-from the rescue of Bear Stearns in March 2008 through the tumultuous events of September 2008, the passage of the TARP and its broad usage, the alphabet soup of emergency Federal Reserve programs, the bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM, and the extended public ownership of AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Throughout, Wallach probes the legal bases of the government's actions and explores why concerns about the legitimacy of government actions were only sporadically grounded in questions of legality. The public's sense that government officials operated through ad hoc responses that favored powerful interests has helped bring the legitimacy of American governmental institutions to historic lows. Wallach's book offers constructive and sensible reforms to ensure accountability and legitimacy before the government faces another crisis.

This book presents a systematic and contextualised account of Chinese securities and capital markets law, giving readers nuanced and practical understandings of law and practice in this field in China. It is structured to cover topics specific to foreigner investors in China such as foreign investment enterprises and cross-border mergers and acquisitions in China. The cultural and political background to doing business in China is very significant when seeking to understand the current law in the country and it can be difficult to access information on that background. This book provides an explanation of the law and practice by setting the current law in the context of its development. Part I of the book provides an overview of the capital markets in China, a contextual discussion of the market development and its characteristics, and a critical analysis of the regulatory framework and possible reform routes. Part II is dedicated to the regulation of securities offerings and listings in China. It looks at both government approval requirements and information disclosure requirements. Part III addresses the securities enforcement structure comprising the government regulator and self-regulatory bodies such as stock exchanges. It examines various forms of market misconduct including market manipulation and insider training. Part IV focuses on mergers and acquisitions in China. It discusses domestic takeovers and cross-border mergers.

Emerging market countries are currently facing the dual challenge of incorporating transnational regulations into their societies while building their own versions of regulatory capitalism. This raises a multitude questions and challenges. Will the diffusion of international public and private regulations of developed countries, benefit a few and marginalize less developed countries? Or, can these regulations foster transnational public-private experiments to improve local regulatory capacities and social conditions? What kinds of strategies might facilitate or impede both transnational regulatory integration and local institutional upgrading? This book offers a fresh perspective in reconciling the seemingly incompatible goals of transnational integration and development. It offers a new analytical framework and a set of case studies that help forge a comparative analysis of integration and development. It offers both the identification of the mechanisms that can foster lasting transnational integration settlements and broad based domestic institutional and economic upgrading. This multidisciplinary study draws on current research from many leading scholars. They analyse issues in a variety of regions around the world and in industries and domains ranging from food safety, manufacturing, telecommunications, finance, as well as labour and environmental rights. The chapters reveal concrete lessons for scholars and practitioners alike, around the different roles and strategies that governments, the multilaterals, firms, and NGOs can take, to facilitate the integration of international standards, improve domestic institutions, and expand the benefits to a great variety of local groups.

This book provides the first comprehensive examination of the regulation of the money market fund sector. In consideration of the current regulatory uncertainties in the sector, this book provides practical help to legal and market practitioners by setting out regulations governing money market funds in the EU and in the US. Providing a comparative approach, analyzing the regulatory environment in the EU and in the US, the book outlines what is required to determine portfolio management and regulatory compliance issues. In doing so, it determines whether a particular analytical approach is sufficiently credible vis-a-vis comparative benchmarks, which is increasingly pivotal in the contemporary setting of the global financial market. Contributing authors offer their interpretations of legal rules and relevant guidelines as well as commentaries, checklists, and practice examples. Divided into three parts; parts one and two cover money market fund development and regulation in the EU and in the US, respectively. Part three provides a comparative analysis of US and EU regulatory models, money market fund ratings, money market funds outside the US and EU and systemic risk regulation. Given the current issues surrounding money market fund regulation, this book is a vital and timely resource offering a comprehensive comparative analysis and rigorous account of money market funds on both sides of the Atlantic.

A well-integrated, national biosurveillance enterprise is a national security imperative. The United States' ability to detect quickly and characterise a potential incident of national significance that affects human, animal, or plant health is of paramount importance. Rapid detection and enhanced situational awareness are critical to saving lives and improving incident outcomes, whether the result of a bioterrorism attack or other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threat, an emerging infectious disease, pandemic, environmental disaster, or a food-borne illness. Beyond the need to protect domestic interests, and because health threats transcend national borders, the United States also plays a vital role within an international network of biosurveillance centres across the globe. This book focuses on the national strategy for biosurveillance and the national biosurveillance science and technology roadmap.

The Dodd-Frank Act requires or authorises various federal agencies to issue hundreds of rules to implement reforms intended to strengthen the financial services industry. This book examines the regulatory analyses federal agencies performed for rules issued pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act and how the agencies consulted with each other in implementing the final rules to avoid duplication or conflicts. Most Dodd-Frank Act regulations have not been finalised or in place for sufficient time for their full impacts to materialise. Recognising these and other limitations, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) took a multi-pronged approach to assess the impact of some of the act's provisions and rules, with an initial focus on the act's systemic risk goals.

Recent volatility in financial markets highlights the need for prudent investment decisions if 401(k) plans are to provide an adequate source of retirement income. While plan sponsors and participants may receive help in assessing their investment choices, concerns have been raised about the impartiality of the advice provided. This book examines improved regulation of 401(k) sponsors to better protect participants from conflicts of interest; increased educational outreach and broader oversight of 401(k) plans to reduce plan fees; and investigation into investment options and practices that could restrict withdrawals.

This comprehensive account of financial regulation and supervision in times of crisis analyses the complex changes under way regarding the new financial regulatory structures in the EU. Focusing on the organisation of financial supervision, it deals with the background to the reforms, the architecture of the regulatory system, the likely implications for the financial institutions and the challenge of international co-operation. Changes in the US have been heavily criticised and in Europe a brand new regulatory system with three new regulatory agencies and a systemic risk board has been developed. National systems are in the process of being updated. International cooperation, although still difficult, has made progress, with the Financial Stability Board now acting on behalf of the G.20. Central bank cooperation has improved significantly and in the meantime, sectoral regulations are being adapted in full speed, such as Basel III, AIDMD, MiFID and many others. This book gives an overall view of these complex changes. The first section of the book provides an assessment of the reforms and considers the background to their making. In the section on regulatory structure there is analysis of the new regulatory bodies, their complex competences and actions. The book also takes a critical look at their likely effectiveness. The final section of the work considers the actual implementation of the new rules in a cross-border context.

Virtual economies and financial crime are ever-growing, increasingly significant facets to banking, finance and anti-money laundering regulations on an international scale. In this pathbreaking and timely book, these two important issues are explored together for the first time in the same place. Clare Chambers-Jones examines the jurisprudential elements of cyber law in the context of virtual economic crime and explains how virtual economic crime can take place in virtual worlds. She looks at the multi-layered and interconnected issues association with the increasing trend of global and virtual banking via the 'Second Life' MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game). Through this fascinating case study, the author illustrates how virtual worlds have created a second virtual economy which transgresses into the real, creating economic, political and social issues. Loopholes used by criminals to launder money through virtual worlds (given the lack of jurisdictional consensus on detection and prosecution) are also highlighted. The importance of providing legal clarity over jurisdictional matters in cyberspace is an increasing concern for policy makers and regulators, and this book provides a wealth of information on new aspects of cyber law and virtual economics. As such, it will prove essential reading for academics, students, researchers and policy makers across the fields of law generally, and more specifically, financial law and regulation, finance, money and banking, and economic crime.

There are over 60 offices of inspectors general in executive and legislative branch agencies, as well as special inspectors general, who are responsible for audits and investigations related to particular programs or expenditures. Inspectors General draw their authorities and duties from the Inspector General Act of 1978. This book addresses the duties and functions of statutory Inspectors General (IGs); the numbers of each type of IG; the differences between IGs appointed by the President and those appointed by the agency head; considerations for whether certain IGs should be appointed by the President as opposed to the agency head; and, the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008.

Credit rating agencies (CRAs) are expected to provide investors with an informed and unbiased view on securities' debt risk; the risk that issuers will fail to make promised interest or principal payments when they are due. The agencies provide judgements on the creditworthiness of bonds issued by a wide spectrum of entities, including corporations, non-profit firms, special purpose entities, sovereign nations and state and municipal governments. This book explores the regulation and reform of credit rating agencies with a focus on their performance and failures in recent years.

The Budget Control Act (BCA) is the result of negotiations between the President and Congress held in response to the federal government having nearly reached its borrowing capacity. The BCA authorised increases in the debt limit of at least $2.1 trillion dollars (and up to $2.4 trillion under certain conditions), subject to a disapproval process that would likely require securing the support of two-thirds of each chamber to prevent a debt limit increase. It established caps on the amount of money that could be spent through the annual appropriations process for the next 10 years, which the CBO estimates will reduce federal spending by $917 billion. This book provides an overview of the essential features of the Budget Control Act, a history and recent increases of the debt limit and the potential effects on government operations.

The maintenance of financial stability is a key objective of monetary policy, but the record of regulators in achieving this has been lamentable in recent years. This failure has been matched by an equivalent inability to establish an appropriate theoretical basis for financial regulation. In this book, the authors demonstrate how to enhance the theory, modeling and practice of such regulation. The main determinant of financial instability is the default of financial institutions. The authors highlight the importance of the appropriate incorporation of default into macro-financial models and its interaction with liquidity. Besides covering the historical development and current stance of financial regulation, the book includes a number of policy-oriented chapters revealing how the authors' modeling approach can improve the process. This authoritative book will serve as a basis for future work on financial stability management for both academics and policy makers and provide guidance on how to undertake crisis prevention and resolution.

This authoritative guide to the Geneva Securities Convention is the first and only UNIDROIT backed analysis of the content of the international treaty. It streamlines the otherwise complicated and numerous transactions of intermediated securities providing easy access for practitioners and scholars in the field. The Commentary is written by participants to the negotiations and discussions which resulted in the final version of the treaty.
The Geneva Securities Convention was developed as a result of the change in the way that securities are held and highlights the position of intermediated securities at the core of the international financial system. The Convention includes key provisions for governing intermediated securities designed to harmonise domestic law and clarify points of difficulty. The general introduction to the commentary sets out the reasons for developing the Convention and the principal concepts underlying its development. The main part of the commentary follows the structure of the Convention and is arranged on an article-by-article basis. The treatment of each article is subdivided into three main parts: An introduction explaining the main goal of that article; a section setting out the genesis of the provision during intergovernmental negotiation; and a part discussing in depth the application of the provision with reference to practical examples.
The Convention is a highly complex instrument and the commentary provides much-needed guidance to the application and interpretation of its provisions. This is a must-have reference for lawyers and scholars interested in financial law, as well as securities intermediaries, clearing houses, banks and government officials.

Equivalence in Financial Services offers a comprehensive and cross-industry examination of the rules and procedures under EU financial legislation dedicated to third-country market actors. The equivalence regime has become particularly topical after Brexit, as the United Kingdom is now a third country from the perspective of the European Union. This book investigates whether the current equivalence system is fit for its purpose, namely facilitating cross-border finance while minimizing as extensively as possible financial risks. After describing how the European Commission adopts equivalence measures, the book examines the implementation of the equivalence regime for the following entities: Credit Rating Agencies, Benchmarks, Trading Venues, Investment Firms, Investment Funds, Central Securities Depositories, Trade Repositories, and Central Counterparties. Addressing the most recent policy and legal developments, Equivalence in Financial Services provides an insightful guide into this complex area of financial regulation for scholars of financial regulation, legal practitioners, and policy makers.

In The End of Negotiable Instruments: Bringing Payment Systems Law Out of the Past, author James Rogers challenges the basic assumptions of the law of checks and notes and its history, and provides a well-reasoned account of how the law could be changed to better suit the evolution of new payment technologies.
The modern American law of payment systems is in disarray. Efforts to create a unified body of law for payment systems have so far been unsuccessful. Part of the reason for that failure is the assumption that the existing law works well for the traditional paper-based check system, and that problems have been created only by the evolution of new technologies. The End of Negotiable Instruments argues that this assumption is unfounded. The basic law of checks is itself anachronistic. There are no other books that undertake a similar analysis--there are legal treatises on the law of checks and notes, but all of them take for granted the basic assumptions challenged in this book. Several articles were published in the late twentieth century concerning the dispute over the application of certain doctrines of traditional negotiable instruments law to modern consumer finance transactions, but none of this literature went on to consider the broader question of whether there is anything worthwhile left in negotiable instruments law.

This stimulating and original Handbook offers an updated and systematic discussion of the relationship between central banks, financial regulation and supervision after the global financial crisis. The crisis has raised new questions about the compatibility of monetary and financial stability, which are changing the face of central banking and its relationships with the architecture of financial regulation and supervision. The Handbook explores on both the economics and political economy of the topic, in order to understand how and why reforms of the role of the central banks can be designed and implemented. The general suggestion is that future effectiveness of the central banking architecture will depend on its ability to ensure the consistency between the monetary actions in normal and extraordinary times. Consequently the possible paths in the central bank strategies and tactics, as well as in the classic concepts of independence, accountability and transparency, are analyzed and discussed. With chapters written by outstanding scholars in economics, this lucid Handbook will appeal to academics, policy makers and practitioners, ranging from central bankers and supervisory authorities to financial operators. Among the academics it would be of particular interest to financial and monetary economists (including postgraduate students), but the institutional slant and the central theme of relations between economics, institutional settings and politics will also be invaluable for political scientists. Contributors: F. Amtenbrink, J. Baxa, B. Born, P.C. Boyer, G. Caprio, M. Cihak, A. Cukierman, L. Dalla Pellegrina, J. De Haan, M. Ehrmann, B. Eichengreen, S. Eijffinger, Y. Fang, M. Fratzscher, F. Giavazzi, A. Giovannini, C.A.E. Goodhart, I. Hasan, R. Horvath, D. Masciandaro, L.J. Mester, M.J. Nieto, R. Nijskens, A. Orphanides, J. Ponce, M. Quintyn, M. Rezende, P.L. Siklos, A. Tieman, B. Vasicek, R. Vega Pansini

With the growth of the global economy over the past two decades, foreign direct investment (FDI) laws, at both the national and international levels, have undergone rapid development in order to strengthen the protection standards for foreign investors. In terms of international investment law, a network of international investment agreements has arisen as a way to address FDI growth. FDI backlash, reflective of more restrictive regulation, has also emerged. The Evolving International Investment Regime analyzes the existing challenges to the international investment regime, and addresses these challenges going forward. It also examines the dynamics of the international regime, as well as a broader view of the changing global economic reality both in the United States and in other countries. The content for the book is a compendium of articles by leading thinkers, originating from the International Investment Conference "What's New in International Investment Law and Policy?"

Die Steuersysteme im 19. Jahrhundert entstanden im Gefolge der neuen liberalen Grundlagenphilosophie von 1789 und den damit verbundenen neuen Staatsordnungen. Sie l-sten die alten feudalen Abgaben und Dienste ab. Von Frankreich ausgehend, entwickelte sich in den meisten mittel- und s}deurop{ischen Staaten der Typ der direkten objektiven Ertragsteuern. Sie sollten die Individuen vor staatlicher Steuerwillk}r besonders gut sch}tzen. Wegen ihrer Schwerf{lligkeit gegen}ber nderungen konnten diese Steuern jedochdie wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Folgen der Industrialisierung nur ungen}gend aufnehmen. Die Ertragsteuern wurden abgel-st durch den revolution{r neuen Typ der englischen subjektiven Einkommensteuer, die bereits 1799 als au erordentliche Kriegssteuer entwickelt worden war. Die preu ische Einkommensteuer von 1891 blieb f}r Deutschland bis heute richtungweisend. Die bewegliche Einkommensteuer pa te sich den Wechseln der Industrialisierung ebenso elastisch an wie den sich {ndernden Staatszwecken: vom liberalen Nachtw{chterstaat, den es im w-rtlichen Sinne kaum gegeben hat, hin zum Rechts-, Lenkungs- und Sozialstaat. Die Steuer wurde zu einem bevorzugten Instrument der Innenpolitik. Die Staatshaushalte zeigen diese nderungen und die milit{rischen Auseinandersetzungen der europ{ischen Staaten mit gro er Deutlichkeit bei ihren Einnahmen und Ausgaben.

Experiments. Law. Economics. Those three words taken by themselves encompass vast parts of the human intellectual experience. Even when we link them together as Experimental Law and Economics, we see a large and diverse body of inquiry over the last half century. This 21st volume of Research in Experimental Economics focuses on experimental and empirical investigations into topics about both the economic effects of the law and how economic theories can explain the behavior of individuals within a legal system. The papers in this volume follow two long-standing traditions. Firstly, the tradition of experimental methodology that allows one to test the potential impacts of alternate institutional arrangements. Secondly, a subset of the papers in this volume, in addition to exploring institutional change, follow the tradition in experimental economics of replication and robustness studies. Illuminating three key areas, by summarizing mechanisms to facilitate the assembly of property rights, exploring legal procedure, and replicating classic market experiments using more recent experimental methods to understand how different market rules affect market outcomes, each of these papers contributes to one of the broader areas within experimental law and economics.