Oxford Business Law Blog

The death of the Glass-Steagall Act was the result of affirmative policy decisions by federal regulators and Congress. It was not the inevitable byproduct of market forces. Economic disruptions and...

In the last decade, China experienced a massive increase in corporate debt. Academics and policy makers have raised concerns about the risks associated with the Chinese credit boom and the recent...

A project of the British Academy - 'The Future of the Corporation’ reached a major milestone on November 1, 2018 with the public discussion of a framework and supporting papers. The project is led by...

Whilst the word ‘disruptive’ may have negative connotations, the potential applications of disruptive technologies can lead to positive developments in emerging markets. This potential is constrained...

In our paper, we consider how the legal and policy challenges associated with related-party transactions (RPTs) in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) differ from those associated with privately owned...

Twenty years ago, the first of a series of tremendously influential papers on 'Law and Finance' was published by Rafael La Porta and his colleagues. By putting legal institutions at the centre of...

Because of their pernicious tendency to serve as a vehicle for extracting value from firms, related party transactions (RPTs) have come to epitomize corporate governance ills. The regulation of RPTs...

‘Equity crowdfunding’—small Internet-based public securities offerings exempt from the usual regulations for such transactions—is an exciting new source for entrepreneurial finance, and New Zealand...

Why are security interests and legal entities both widely used? The prevailing answer in legal scholarship is that both bodies of law exist to partition assets for the benefit of designated creditors...

It is now twenty years since the publication of La Porta et al’s “Law and Finance” paper in the Journal of Political Economy. Although the methodology used in early law and finance papers attracted...

In the face of scandals in the corporate sector, such as the collapse of BHS in 2016 and Carillion in 2018, UK policy-makers are responsive to introducing reforms in company law. Indeed, the Business...

Robust capital markets require highest levels of transparency in accounting. Therefore, several jurisdictions have established independent audit regulators. In India, three major audit scandals have...

There is a growing sense among academics and practitioners that common ownership—where two firms are at least partially owned by the same investor—is on the rise among publicly-held U.S. firms and...

Women remain underrepresented at all levels of corporate leadership, including among CEOs and board directors. Women make up 5% of CEOs in the Fortune 500, even less in the S&P 500. Women do...

The recent Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (“CFA”) decision in Moody’s Investors Service Hong Kong Limited v Securities and Futures Commission [2018] HKCFA 42 raises very important issues regarding...

“Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.” Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz A Prussian general and the author of On War may...

Modern payment systems have changed considerably over the past decade. In developing countries, so-called ‘electronic money’, issued and used on mobile phones, provided a viable digital alternative...

Since the 2007–2009 financial crisis we observe more persistent deviations in the prices of closely related assets, so called ‘basis spreads’. This creates apparent profit opportunities and raises...