Assesses the standards set by international financial and legislative bodies on secured credit law.

Secured transactions law has been subjected to a close scrutiny over the last two decades. One of the main reasons for this is the importance of availability of credit and the consequent need to reform collateral laws in order to improve access to finance. The ability to give security effectively influences not only the cost of credit but also, in some cases, whether credit will be available at all. This requires rules that are transparent and readily accessible to non-lawyers as well as rules that recognise the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. This book critically engages with the challenges posed by inefficient secured credit laws. It offers a comparative analysis of the reasons and the needs for a secured transactions law reform, as well as discussion of the steps taken in many common law, civil law and mixed law jurisdictions. The book, written under the auspices of the Secured Transactions Law Reform Project, informs the debate about reform and advances novel arguments written by world renowned experts that will build upon the existing literature, and as such will be of interest to academics, legal practitioners and the judiciary involved in secured transactions law around the world. The text considers reform initiatives that have taken place up to the end of April 2016. It has not been possible to incorporate events since then into the discussion. However, notable developments include the banks decree passed by the Italian Government on 29th June 2016, and the adoption of the Model Law on Secured Transactions by UNCITRAL on 1st July 2016.

The 2008 financial crisis has become one of the defining features of the twenty first century’s first decade. The series of events which unfolded in the aftermath of the crisis has exposed major structural flaws in many of the financial systems around the globe, triggering a global call for legal and regulatory reforms to address the problems that have been uncovered. This book deals with a neglected angle of the 2008 financial crisis looking in-depth at the implicit effects of the 2008 crisis on the UK financial market. The book considers new trends in finance which have emerged since the crisis as well as the challenges faced by some older practices in the UK financial markets. After providing a reflective account of the history of law and creditors in the UK the book investigates the proliferation of certain forms of financing that have recently become very visible parts of the UK financial market’s structure, such as high cost short term lending and peer to peer lending. It provides legal and economic accounts of these forms of alternative lending, charting their developments, current status and critically assesses their impact on the UK financial market. Also examined are the ongoing funding difficulties faced by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the suitability of the UK current legal framework to support these institutions. The book goes on to look at the viability and safety of some other post crisis trends such as banks use of Contingent Convertible Bonds (CoCos) to improve their resilience.

Winner of the 2016–2018 KG Idman Prize. This monograph seeks the optimal way to promote compatibility between systems of proprietary security rights in Europe, focusing on security rights over tangible movables and receivables. Based on comparative research, it proposes how best to tackle cross-border problems impeding trade and finance, notably uncertainty of enforceability and unexpected loss of security rights. It offers an extensive analysis of the academic literature of more recent years that has appeared in English, German, the Scandinavian languages and Finnish. The author organises the concrete means of promoting compatibility into a centralised substantive approach, a centralised conflicts-approach, a local conflicts-approach and a local substantive approach. The centralised approaches develop EU law, and the local approaches Member State laws. The substantive approaches unify or harmonise substantive law, while the conflicts approaches rely on private international law. The author proposes determining the optimal way to promote compatibility by objective-based division of labour between the four approaches. The objectives developed for that purpose are derived from the economic functions of security rights, the conditions for legal evolution and a transnational conception of justice. This book is an important contribution to the future of secured transactions law in Europe and more widely. It will be of interest to academics, policymakers and legal practitioners involved in this field.

This cutting-edge Handbook presents an overview of research and thinking in the field of secured financing, examining international standards and best practices of secured transactions law reform and its economic impact. Expert contributors explore the

This book explores current developments in transnational commercial and consumer law. It features essays written by leading experts, many of who have taken part in the negotiation and formulation of the international instruments they discuss here. The contributors look at issues arising from the profound changes that globalization is having on the legal norms governing commercial and consumer transactions, both domestic and transnational. They consider how relations between private actors, state regulators, and national courts are being completely reconfigured. This, in turn, generates pressures for legal harmonization and creates opportunities for new national and transnational legal norms and procedures to develop. The contributions address both the dynamics and the substance of these developments. Topics included are the UNCITRAL Model Law on secured transactions and on cross-border insolvency, the ICC Uniform Customs and Practices of Documentary Credits (UCP 600), and the dispute resolution mechanism and practices of the World Trade Organization. The content was formerly presented as papers at the 18th Biennial Meeting of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law (the International Academy) at Kyushu University, Japan. Overall, this book provides readers with a solid theoretical foundation and strong familiarity with the practice of law and international commerce, offering realistic and practical conclusions.