Law Commons^™

Legal Literature Review Of Social Entrepreneurship And Impact Investing (2007-2017): Doing Good By Doing Business, Deborah Burand, Anne Tucker

William & Mary Business Law Review

Although the ambition to do good by doing business is not new, the burgeoning realization of this ambition is. As the fields of social entrepreneurship and impact investing advance in size, scope and complexity, questions about the roles of corporations and capital markets in society intensify.

What is legal scholarship contributing to this discussion? This Article reviews the scholarly contributions of 260 articles written by over 150 authors about the fields of social enterprise, social finance, and impact investing. The Article maps the contributions of legal scholarship over the last decade—from 2007 (when the term “impact investing” was first coined) …

Evaluating The Costs And Benefits Of A Smart Contract Blockchain Framework For Credit Default Swaps, Ryan Clements

William & Mary Business Law Review

Despite wide speculation about its use-value, there are very few large-scale Blockchain implementations, particularly in sophisticated financial applications and mature markets. The extent of Blockchain’s disruptive potential in these domains is uncertain. This Article considers Blockchain’s use-value for credit default swap contract execution, fulfillment, and post-trade processing by using, as an assessment base, a series of derivative industry whitepapers, academic and technological evaluative studies, and commentary relating to current market undertakings. In summary, when applied to credit default swaps, there are many barriers to implementation, as well as costs, fragmentation risks, technological deficiencies, and practical drawbacks. As a result, there …

What Exactly Is Market Integrity? An Analysis Of One Of The Core Objectives Of Securities Regulation, Janet Austin

William & Mary Business Law Review

One of the main objectives of securities regulation around the world is to protect the integrity or fairness of the markets. This, together with protecting investors, improving the efficiency of markets, and protecting the markets from systemic risk, form the four fundamental goals of securities regulation.

However, what exactly is envisaged by this concept of market integrity or fairness? Are these simply norms of behaviour incapable of further definition? Despite their importance, relatively little attention has been given to these concepts in the literature. Do they, for example, require securities regulators to just work towards eliminating dishonest trading practices such …

Collateral Damage: The Legal And Regulatory Protections For Customer Margin In The U.S. Derivatives Markets, Christian Chamorro-Courtland

William & Mary Business Law Review

This Article provides a detailed analysis ofthe laws and regulations that apply to margin posted by customers entering into futures and cleared swaps contracts in the United States. It describes the types ofmargin accounts used by Futures Commission Merchants (“FCM”) and Central Counterparties (“CCPs”). It analyzes the rights of customers upon the insolvency of their FCM.

First, this Article explains why futures customers currently receive a lower level of protection under the Commodity Exchange Act than that received by cleared swaps customers under the Dodd-Frank Act. On the one hand, futures customers currently share risk as co-owners for margin that …

The Global Significance Of Crowdfunding: Solving The Sme Funding Problem And Democratizing Access To Capital, Alma Pekmezovic, Gordon Walker

William & Mary Business Law Review

This Article provides a comprehensive review of the crowdfunding phenomenon. It argues that equity crowdfunding (“ECF”) and, to a lesser extent, peer-to-peer lending (“P2PL”) offer the possibility of a global solution to the small and medium-sized enterprise (“SME”) funding problem. In the United States, the SME funding problem is exacerbated by the markedly diminishing rate of startup formation, a factor that injects a degree of urgency into resolving the optimal means to implement ECF. Here, as with the “fin-tech” revolution, the law lags behind technological developments. The second main argument is that ECF enhances access to capital for SMEs globally …

Superior Supererogation: Why Credit Default Swaps Are Securities Under The Investment Advisers Act Of 1940, J. Tyler Kirk

William & Mary Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Insider Trading, Informed Trading, And Market Making: Liquidity Of Securities Markets In The Zero-Sum Game, Stanislav Dolgopolov

William & Mary Business Law Review

This Article reexamines the nexus of relationships among informed transactions, information asymmetry, and liquidity of securities markets in the context of public policy debates about insider trading and its regulation.The Article analyzes this nexus, with the emphasis on recent empirical studies and developments in the securities industry, from a variety of perspectives and considers the validity of the alleged link between insider trading—as opposed to other forms of informed trading—and market liquidity as a justification for the existence of regulation.