Oxford Business Law Blog

We usually think that the stock market provides an accurate valuation of a firm, whether it is a large diversified conglomerate, a tiny focussed firm, a manufacturing company or a utility company. By...

Climate change presents serious implications for development in developing countries. The United Nations Human Development Report in 2016 found that over 1.5 billion people in developing countries...

The most dramatic development in twenty-first century bankruptcy practice has been the increasing use of contracts to shape the bankruptcy process. In our article, we assess—and try to make sense of—...

For the past several years, the US Congress has been considering various versions of a legislative reform that would amend the Bankruptcy Code to facilitate the prompt reorganization of systemically...

In our paper, we empirically study the effect of Chrysler's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on the unit sales of its competitors in the U.S. automotive industry. On the one hand, the demand for the...

The EU Revised Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II) is currently required to be implemented by 10 June 2019. It seeks to encourage long-term shareholder involvement through increased transparency...

Cryptocurrencies and their potential impact on central banking have sparked a policy debate on addressing their potential risks to the banking and monetary systems. By highlighting the functional...

Many debtholders, whether private households, companies, or states, are caught up in high-interest long-term loans. At the same time, economic developments over the past few years have created a low-...

Firms with strong corporate governance are often likened to democracies. Through their proposals and votes, shareholders can determine the broad direction of a company. However, shareholder...

Both practitioners and academics generally have a dim view of dual-class share structures. For example, when Snap Inc. was preparing for its initial public offering (IPO) in 2017, CalPERS and other...

A keynote policy of UK financial regulation since the financial crisis has been the ‘ring-fencing’ of retail banks into separate and independently operated entities, so-called ‘ring-fenced bodies’ (...

In our paper ‘Director Bankruptcy Experience and Corporate Risk Taking’, we evaluate the extent to which a director’s corporate bankruptcy experience affects the policies their firms follow. We begin...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

Complex capital structures are prevalent in many recent high-profile Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. One recent example is Toys ‘R’ Us, whose debt structure was, as characterized by Bloomberg...

In 2005, the perception that wealthy executives were being rewarded for failure led Congress to ban Chapter 11 debtors from paying ‘retention’ bonuses to senior managers. Prior to the reform,...

In the last few years, an ever-increasing number of platforms are launching ICOs (initial coin offerings). But what happens if an insolvent debtor holds tokens and insolvency proceedings are opened?...

My new paper, Secured Credit and Effective Entity Priority addresses a puzzle in bankruptcy and secured transactions law regarding the scope of security interests. Under existing law, security...