Oxford Business Law Blog

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) represent about 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment worldwide. Despite the economic relevance of MSMEs in most countries around the...

In the past decades, several countries in Latin America, including Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay, have implemented significant corporate law reforms. In the meantime, the regulatory...

When a company becomes factually insolvent but it is not yet subject to a formal insolvency proceeding, the shareholders—or the directors acting on their behalf—may engage, even in good faith, in...

In the past years, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have become an important fundraising method for many individuals and firms. While most regulators, academics and policymakers around the world have...

Corporate insolvency law can serve as a powerful mechanism to promote economic growth. Ex ante, a well-functioning insolvency framework can facilitate entrepreneurship, innovation and access to...

The international spread of the coronavirus is not only generating dramatic consequences from a social perspective but it is also heavily affecting the global economy. For this reason, governments,...

Unlike other jurisdictions around the world, several European countries require corporate directors to file for bankruptcy once a company becomes insolvent. For instance, under German law, corporate...

Auditors play a major role in corporate governance and capital markets. Ex ante, auditors facilitate firms’ access to finance by creating trust from public investors. Ex post, auditors can prevent...

In the past years, Singapore has modernized its insolvency framework with the purpose of becoming an international hub for debt restructuring. One of the most significant reforms has affected the...

On 27 June 2019, the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law hosted the 2nd SMU–3CL Cambridge Roundtable on Corporate Insolvency Law. This roundtable is an initiative jointly organised by the...

The Spanish Ministry of Economy has recently released a new bill that, among other aspects, proposes an amendment of the Spanish Companies Act to allow listed companies to adopt loyalty shares. These...

On 23 January 2019, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a guidance on cryptoassets (FCA-GC) with the purpose of improving and clarifying the regulatory framework of cryptoassets in the...

Several countries and regions around the world, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the European Union are amending their restructuring framework to implement a pre-insolvency mechanism that...

As shown by the law and finance literature, most Latin American companies have concentrated ownership structures with controlling shareholders (La Porta et al, 1998, 1999). As a result, the primary...

In the past years, several companies, such as Google, Linkedin, Facebook, and Alibaba, went public with dual-class share structures, that is, share structures that typically include two classes of...

Following the recommendations of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, most financial systems around the world have imposed new capital requirements for banks in recent years. These moves seem...

In a seminal work, Modigliani and Miller pointed out that, in a world with no asymmetries of information, no transaction costs, no taxes and no costs of bankruptcy, the value of the firm is...

Most insolvency jurisdictions provide several mechanisms to reverse transactions entered into by a debtor prior to the commencement of the bankruptcy procedure. These mechanisms, generally known as...

The reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States has captured the attention of many investors, governments, international organizations, academics, and law firms from...

The design of bankruptcy law may have a significant impact on people´s access to finance, the asset and capital structure of firms, and the level of innovation and entrepreneurship in a country. For...

The main agency problem traditionally existing in the US corporation has been the risk of opportunism of managers vis-à-vis shareholders. In Continental Europe, however, the primary concern in...