A decade after the Global Financial Crisis and Great Recession, developed economies continue to struggle under excessive household debt. While exacerbating inequality and political unrest, this debt - when combined with wage stagnation and a shrinking welfare state - has played a key role in maintaining economic growth and allowing households faced with rising costs of living to make ends meet. In Bankruptcy: The Case for Relief in an Economy of Debt, Joseph Spooner examines this economic model and finds it increasingly unsustainable. In a call to action to reduce debt burden, he turns to bankruptcy law, which is uniquely situated as a mechanism of social insurance against the risks of a debt-dependent economy. This book should be read by anyone interested in understanding the problem of consumer debt and how best to address it.
This collection of cutting-edge scholarship examines the law and policy of financial regulation using a combination of conceptual analysis and strong empirical research. The book's authors range from global leaders to rising stars in the field, all of whom shed light on complex questions of financial sector regulation theory and practice in key economies ranging from the EU to China. Key topics include the role of law in constituting financial markets, the efficiency of markets, the role of interest groups in shaping financial regulation, the interdependence and interactions of international financial regulation with international trade and monetary regimes, and problems of regulation in state capitalism economies. This exciting volume opens the road for further enrichment of the academic and policy-making dialogue on financial regulation and regulatory practice, and reflects new trends in legal and social-science scholarship.
What happens when a corporate subsidiary or network company is unable to pay personal injury victims in full? This book sets out to tackle the 'insolvent entity problem', especially as it arises in cases of mass wrongdoing such as those involving asbestos exposure and defective pharmaceuticals. After discussing the nature of corporate groups and networks from the perspectives of business history, organisation studies, and social theory, the book assesses a range of rules and proposed rules for extending liability for personal injuries beyond insolvent entities. New proposals are put forward for an exception to the rule of limited liability and for the development of a flexible new tort based on conspiracy that encompasses not only control-based relationships but also horizontal coordination between companies. The book concludes with a general discussion of lessons learned from debates about extended liability and provides guidelines for the development of new liability rules.
This collection of Ludwig Lachmann's essays challenges contemporary attitudes to economics and seeks to apply an interpretive approach to the discipline. The essays, spanning six decades, address a wi
The business corporation is one of the greatest organizational inventions, but it creates risks both for shareholders and for third parties. To mitigate these risks, legislators, judges, and corporate lawyers have tried to learn from foreign experiences and adapt their regulatory regimes to them. In the last three decades, this approach has led to a stream of corporate and capital market law reforms unseen before. Corporate governance, the system by which companies are directed and controlled, is today a key topic for legislation, practice, and academia all over the world. Corporate scandals and financial crises have repeatedly highlighted the need to better understand the economic, social, political, and legal determinants of corporate governance in individual countries. Comparative Corporate Governance furthers this goal by bringing together current scholarship in law and economics with the expertise of local corporate governance specialists from twenty-three countries.
The rise of the independent director in Asia is an issue of global consequence that has been largely overlooked until recently. Less than two decades ago, independent directors were oddities in Asia's boardrooms. Today, they are ubiquitous. Independent Directors in Asia undertakes the first detailed analysis of this phenomenon. It provides in-depth historical, contextual and comparative perspectives on the law and practice of independent directors in seven core Asian jurisdictions (China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan) and Australia. These case studies reveal the varieties of independent directors in Asia, none of which conform to its original American concept. The authors develop a taxonomy of these varieties, which provides a powerful analytical tool for more accurately understanding and effectively researching independent directors in Asia. This new approach challenges foundational aspects of comparative corporate governance practice and suggests a new path
Why and in what ways have lawyers been importing economic theories into a legal environment, and how has this shaped scholarly research, judicial and legislative work? Since the financial crisis, corporate or capital markets law has been the focus of attention by academia and media. Formal modelling has been used to describe how capital markets work and, later, has been criticised for its abstract assumptions. Empirical legal studies and regulatory impact assessments offered different ways forward. This book presents a new approach to the risks and benefits of interdisciplinary policy work. The benefits economic theory brings for reliable and tested lawmaking are contrasted with important challenges including the significant differences of research methodology, leading to misunderstandings and problems of efficient implementation of economic theory's findings into the legal world. Katja Langenbucher's innovative research scrutinises the potential of economic theory to European legislat
This book explores the foundations and evolution of modern corporate fiduciary law in the United States and the United Kingdom. Today US and UK fiduciary law provide very different approaches to the regulation of directorial behaviour. However, as the book shows, the law in both jurisdictions borrowed from the same sources in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English fiduciary and commercial law. The book identifies the shared legal foundations and authorities and explores the drivers of corporate fiduciary law's contemporary divergence. In so doing it challenges the prevailing accounts of corporate legal change and stability in the US and the UK.
A globe-spanning group of leading law and finance scholars bring together cutting-edge research to comprehensively examine the challenges legislators face in regulating related party transactions in a socially beneficial way. Combining theoretical analysis of the foundations of efficient regulation with empirical and comparative studies, readers are invited to draw their own conclusions on which regulatory responses work best under differing circumstances. The careful selection of surveyed jurisdictions offers in-depth insight into a broad variety of regulatory strategies and their interdependence with socioeconomic and political conditions. This work should be read by scholars, policymakers, and graduate students interested in a critical, much-debated area of corporate governance.
This is a case study of legal transplant, economic development, cultural adaptation and political integration. Hong Kong's journey from British entrepôt to China's international financial centre is one of the most interesting legal stories of our time. But Hong Kong's future is even more interesting: will this region with British-origin institutions survive full integration into China and become its permanent international financial centre? Does Hong Kong have the legal infrastructure to compete effectively with Shanghai and Singapore, and even New York and London? A Financial Centre for Two Empires presents Hong Kong's story, examines its corporate economy and securities market, assesses its corporate, securities and tax laws for doctrinal soundness and appropriate remedies, and evaluates the quality of their enforcement empirically. It closes with a view of Hong Kong from the perspective of developments in Beijing and Shanghai, including an examination of the important political
With contributions by distinguished scholars from legal and financial backgrounds, this collection of essays analyses four main topics in the corporate governance of European listed firms: (i) board structure, composition and functioning and their interaction with ownership structure; (ii) board remuneration; (iii) shareholder activism and (iv) corporate governance disclosure based on the 'comply or explain' approach. The authors provide new comparative evidence and analyse its implications for the policy debate. They challenge the conventional wisdom that corporate governance in European firms was systematically dysfunctional. While proposals aimed at increasing disclosure and accountability are usually well-grounded, caution is suggested when bringing forward regulatory changes with respect to proposals targeting specific governance arrangements, especially in the fields of board composition and shareholder activism. They argue that the 'comply or explain' principle should be retaine
On a typical suburban street in a typical suburban town, there is an ordinary family living the American dream. But look closer. Lester Burnham's wife, Carolyn, regards him with contempt, his daughte
The rise of the independent director in Asia is an issue of global consequence that has been largely overlooked until recently. Less than two decades ago, independent directors were oddities in Asia's boardrooms. Today, they are ubiquitous. Independent Directors in Asia undertakes the first detailed analysis of this phenomenon. It provides in-depth historical, contextual and comparative perspectives on the law and practice of independent directors in seven core Asian jurisdictions (China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan) and Australia. These case studies reveal the varieties of independent directors in Asia, none of which conform to its original American concept. The authors develop a taxonomy of these varieties, which provides a powerful analytical tool for more accurately understanding and effectively researching independent directors in Asia. This new approach challenges foundational aspects of comparative corporate governance practice and suggests a new path
This assessment of the corporate governance role of corporate lawyers in the UK analyses the extent to which lawyers can and should act as gatekeepers, counsellors and reputational intermediaries. Focusing on external and in-house lawyers' roles in both dispersed share-ownership and owner-managed companies, Joan Loughrey highlights the conflicts of interest that are endemic in corporate representation and examines how lawyers should respond when corporate agents provide instructions contrary to the company client's interests. She also considers the legitimacy of 'creative compliance', the ethical arguments for and against lawyers prioritising the public interest over their clients' interests, and their exposure to liability if they fail to perform a corporate governance role. Finally, she considers whether the reforms to the legal profession will promote the lawyer's corporate governance role and advances suggestions for reform.
Enterpreneurship is central to the market process, and yet most theories of it fail to tackle the problem of how economic agents learn from their experience. This book redresses this by systematically
Having published numerous works on the Soviet and post-Soviet economy, Columbia University's "Richard Ericson" is well placed to provide this excellent account of one of "the" major transition economi
The EU and the US responded to the global financial crisis by changing the rules for the functioning of financial services and markets and by establishing new oversight bodies. With the US Dodd–Frank Act and numerous EU regulations and directives now in place, this book provides a timely and thoughtful explanation of the key elements of the new regimes in both regions, of the political processes which shaped their content and of their practical impact. Insights from areas such as economics, political science and financial history elucidate the significance of the reforms. Australia's resilience during the financial crisis, which contrasted sharply with the severe problems that were experienced in the EU and the US, is also examined. The comparison between the performances of these major economies in a period of such extreme stress tells us much about the complex regulatory and economic ecosystems of which financial markets are a part.
Private equity-backed companies are ubiquitous and economically significant. Consequently, the corporate governance of these companies matters to all of us, and – not surprisingly – is coming under increasing scrutiny. Simon Witney, a practicing private equity lawyer, positions private equity portfolio companies within existing academic theory and examines the laws that apply to them in the UK. He analyses the actual governance frameworks that are put in place and identifies problems created by the legal rules – as well as the market's solutions to them. This book not only explains why these governance mechanisms are established, but also what they are expected to achieve. Witney suggests that private equity owners have both the incentives and the capability to focus on responsible investment practices. Good governance, he argues, is a critical success factor for the private equity industry.
