Law originates in local environments, yet can be transmitted globally or over time to new contexts and foreign or future users. At its origin, law arises in response to social needs, but once formalized it takes on a semantic life of its own in a network of users. A rule created in response to a...

Hostile takeovers are usually conceived as open market transactions to dispersed shareholders, who have to make a decision on complex issues within a short timeframe. Aside from the simple fact that shareholders have a right to sell their shares, the risks takeovers present to market integrity...

The market of a successful financial center must be efficient, orderly and fair, which requires that investor protection rules be enforced effectively. While a substantial literature exists promoting privately driven enforcement of investor protection rules, there is a growing consensus that...

Quantitative research (QR) has undeniably improved the quality of law- and rulemaking, but it can also present risks for these activities. On the one hand, replacing anecdotal assertions regarding behavior or the effects of rules in an area to be regulated with objective, statistical evidence...

Infrastructure matters. Markets are designed by market participants for the benefit of market participants and assessed measuring utility to market participants. The natural result is that market structure becomes a tool used by the most powerful market participants to extract rents from the...

This is a contribution to a conference volume for the 2010 National University of Singapore Symposium on “Law and Development in China - The Legal Dimension of China's Development Model.” The paper aims to shed some light on the way forward for the Chinese securities markets. It examines the...

This paper views corruption as arising from a conflict of interests, in which the corrupt actor pursues a private interest at the expense of an official or professional duty. In this way, conflicts of interest are at the root of corrupt behaviour in both the public and the private sector. Such...