Oxford Business Law Blog

Cross-border venture capital investments play an important role in the scaling up of high-growth companies. However, when these companies obtain foreign funding, typically from US investors, there is...

In our book The Choice Theory of Contracts (Cambridge, Amazon, SSRN), we develop a liberal theory of contract law. In three forthcoming essays, we reply to critics and show how and why autonomy must...

In ‘Choice Theory and the Economic Analysis of Contracts’ I offer an economist’s reaction to Hanoch Dagan and Michael Heller’s important book, ‘The Choice Theory of Contracts.’ In this post, I...

Our recently published book Intermediation and Beyond , edited by Louise Gullifer and Jennifer Payne, is the result of a project run by the Commercial Law Centre at Harris Manchester College. The...

The digitalisation of production and distribution processes means that the (‘first-copy’) costs to develop and launch a product are preponderant in comparison to the following costs to actually...

A central issue in corporate governance literature is the extent to which ‘good’ governance practices are universal (one size mostly fits all) or instead depend on country and firm characteristics,...

International commercial, financial, and other business transactions increasingly are conducted under ‘soft law’ rules—effectively, non-state rules that may be aspirational or reflect best practices...

In the field of shareholders’ voting rights, the protection of minority shareholders is an issue often raised with the need for corporate regulations to be inspired by democratic principles such as...

Judges, legislators, corporate practitioners, and scholars of business law all conduct their work based on some working conception of what “corporate law” is. Strangely, however, the question of what...

Take a look at our full video interview with Prof Horst Eidenmüller about his empirical research on extreme sports sponsoring contracts and their link with inefficient risk-taking by the sponsored...

Our article entitled 'The Hidden Dimension of Business Bankruptcy in Australia' is the first empirically-based analysis of business bankruptcy to be conducted in Australia. It has two principal...

2018 witnessed an eruption of auditing scandals around the globe, but the political reaction has been uniquely intense in the U.K. The Labour Party has promised to ‘break up’ the Big Four, and the...

According to long-standing and fundamental English corporate law principles, limited liability applies in the context of group companies to the same extent as it does in stand-alone entities. As a...

The question of how people can trade with each other independently of national laws is a question that has kept philosophers, economists and lawyers busy for centuries. In recent years, the...

Are algorithms biased? In what respect? These are large questions, and there are no simple answers. My goal here is to offer one perspective on them, principally by reference to some of the most...

Ensuring sustainability is one of the grand challenges of our times, but nation-states are severely overstrained with this monumental task. Since states’ legislative power is limited, the suitable...

A considerable proportion of publicly traded corporate bonds comprises bonds of privately held firms (ie, firms whose equity is non-listed and does not trade over the counter). In our paper 'Is it...

The market for investing in distressed debt securities, the so-called ‘vulture’ markets, has captured the interest of increasing numbers of investors and analysts. These investors, sometimes...

With the UK’s planned exit from the European Union on March 29, 2019 looming and the likelihood of an exit without a withdrawal agreement (a so-called 'No Deal' Brexit) increasingly probable, merging...

One of the key recommended principles of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s (ABI) proposed reform of the US bankruptcy procedure is to grant a redemption option to junior creditors. This option...

A large part of the literature dealing with corporate law & governance and innovation focuses on directors’ role in promoting, investing and coordinating innovation processes. Such an approach is...