Law Commons^™

The Multimodal Electronic Transferable Transport Record (Ettr) : A Survey Of Laws And Basic Concepts, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

A transport document is a receipt issued by the carrier of goods upon taking possession of them under a contract for their carriage. It is a document of title when its transfer may facilitate not only the transfer of the right to claim the goods from the carrier but also the transfer of title to the goods. Particularly in relation to the carriage of goods other than by sea, and by reference to banking and commercial practices, this study surveys the current legal position of both digitization and negotiability of transport documents. This is done with a view to preparing …

Digital Euro And Ecb Powers, Seraina Neva Grünewald, Corinne Zellweger-Gutknecht, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

The use of cash in the euro area is declining. Accordingly, the EuropeanCentral Bank is exploring options for the design of a digital euro as a form of central bank money available to the public. This article addresses the key question of whether the Eurosystem is empowered to issue a digital euro and, if so, in what form. Based on a historical, teleological, and systematic interpretation, it argues that Article 128(1) TFEU serves as both a source of competence for the Eurosystem to issue a digital euro and a limitation to that competence. The Eurosystem’s powers are necessarily exclusive and …

Climate Change As Systemic Risk, Barnali Choudhury

Articles & Book Chapters

Hindsight tells us that COVID-19, thought by former President Trump and others to have come out of nowhere, is more aptly labelled a “gray rhino” event, one that was highly probable and preventable. Indeed, despite considerable evidence of the impending threats of pandemics, for the most part, governments failed to prepare for the pandemic, resulting in wide-scale social and economic losses.

The lessons from COVID-19, however, should remind us of the perils of ignoring gray rhino risks. Nowhere is this more apparent than with climate change, a highly probable, high impact threat that has largely been ignored to date. Despite …

The E-Banknote As A ‘Banknote’: A Monetary Law Interpreted, Benjamin Geva, Seraina Neva Grünewald, Corinne Zellweger-Gutknecht

Articles & Book Chapters

This article discusses whether electronic banknotes can properly be characterised as ‘banknotes’, their design as such and what architectural models are available for their issuance by central banks. Issues are addressed under general principles governing the interpretation of monetary laws in the context of evolving technologies and institutional arrangements. The article proposes a clear terminology to address the concepts underlying digital currencies and access to central bank money, and argues that a banknote may be ‘written’ electronically. The stance adopted in the article is critical of both account-based retail central bank digital currency and cryptocurrencies, and highlights the salient features …

Supreme Court Clarifies Risk Of Loss Due To Fraudulent Efts, Christopher Richter, Benjamin Geva, Matthew Angelus, Eli Monas

Articles & Book Chapters

The Supreme Court of Canada released a short

decision on December 10 confirming unanimously that

it is the bank’s customer who bears the risk of loss of an

amount that the bank transferred by electronic payment

order from the customer’s account to a third party as

a result of a phishing scam. The decision adopts the

reasoning of the Québec Court of Appeal and specifies

that it would not have been different if the customer’s

account had been in positive balance. In this case, the

customer’s account was in a debit position.

The E-Banknote As A 'Banknote' : A Monetary Law Interpreted, Benjamin Geva, Seraina Neva Grünewald, Corinne Zellweger-Gutknecht

Articles & Book Chapters

The article discusses whether an electronic banknote is a ‘banknote’. The issue is dealt with as a matter of general statutory interpretation in the context of evolving technologies and institutional arrangements. The article proposes a clear terminology to address concepts underlying digital currencies and access to central bank money and argues that a banknote may be ‘written’ electronically. The article is critical of both account-based Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and cryptocurrencies and highlights features of nonblockchain token-based alternatives. It sheds light on considerations affecting the selection of a design which is appropriate from both a functional and legal perspective …

Title Iv: Rights And Obligations In Relation To The Provision And Use Of Payment Services (Chapter 3, Arts 78-93): Execution Of Payment Transactions, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

PSD2 Title IV Chapter 3, consisting of arts 78 – 93, addresses rights and obligations between the payment service user and the payment service provider in connection with the execution of payment transactions. It innovates in providing for the liability of a payment initiation service, a newly defined payment service provider.

Section 1 deals with receipt, refusal and irrevocability payment orders as well as with amounts transferred. By references to all currencies, Section 2 covers execution time and value date. Addressing liability, Section 3, contains rules allocating responsibility in cases of non-execution or defective execution.

Discussion in this book chapter …

Title I: Subject Matter, Scope And Definitions (Art. 1 - Art. 4): The Regulated Field (Object And Subject), Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

The PSD2 regulates ‘payment services’ provided within the European Union by ‘payment service providers’ (PSPs). PSPs are identified in art 1(1). ‘Payment services’ are set out in Annex I, to which art 4(3) directs.

Title I, consisting of arts 1 to 4, provides for the subject matter, scope and definitions of the PSD2. In addition to identifying the payment institutions to which the PSD2 applies, art 1 states that the Directive establishes PSPs’ disclosure and contractual framework requirements. Art 2 both provides for and finetunes coverage by addressing currencies and exemptions. Art 3 provides for exclusions. Art 4 sets out …

Ai, Consumer Credit, And Discrimination: A Comparative Look At Canada And The United States, Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Mandy Bedford

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Ecb And € E-Banknotes, Corinne Zellweger-Gutknecht, Benjamin Geva, Seraina Neva Grünewald

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Financial Law And Technology: Book Reviews On Mobile Payments And Digital Innovation, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Payment In Virtual Currency, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

By reference to an analysis of the operation of payment in traditional forms of money, this essay explores the meaning of ‘virtual currency’ and the mechanism for payment in it. Endeavoring to identify directions in which events will unfold, the essay sets the stage for a future detailed analysis of pertaining legal aspects.

Breaking The Code: Cryptocurrency And Programming Proposal, Allan C. Hutchinson

Articles & Book Chapters

The problem to be faced in regulating cryptocurrency is the general thrust of the ‘governance paradox’—how do you regulate an innovative scheme that demands some regulation in the public interest, when you know that any regulation will transform the very features of that scheme that not only makes it what it is, but also makes it especially useful and attractive to that same public? More specifically, how do you regulate an off-the-grid, decentralized and distributed scheme without making it into an on-the-grid, centralized and undistributed scheme? This is the challenge to be met in devising any kind of proposal to …

Electronic Payments: Guide On Legal And Regulatory Reforms And Best Practices For Developing Countries, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

Electronic payments (e-payments) occur whenever payment instructions, initiated by a device such as a computer or mobile phone, enter a payments system via the Internet or any other telecommunications network. E-payments can be assisted by non-banking channels. They enhance the speed, efficiency and safety of payments. However, to reap all such benefits, e-payments require new legal and regulatory solutions to accommodate both the promise and risks inherent in the quickening pace of development. This Guide sets out a general framework addressing e-payment systems in a broad international/cross-border context, as well as addresses regulatory principles, risk of legal uncertainty and e-payments …

Non-State Community Virtual Currencies, Benjamin Geva, Dorit Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

Community currencies are means of payment issued other than by the State, for voluntary use side by side with State-issued (that is, national) currency, either in a particular geographical area or by a group of users. This chapter deals with them as their media have been transforming from paper to digital. Discussing legal aspects of digital community currencies as monetary objects, this chapter combines an analysis general to the law of community currencies, as applied to community currencies regardless of the media in which they are embodied, with an analysis of the general law governing digital currencies as applied to …

Payment Transactions Under The E.U. Second Payment Services Directive – An Outsider’S View, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

In its proposal for a Directive on payment services in the internal market (hereafter: the Proposal), the Commission of the European Communities (“the Commission”) purported to provide for “a harmonised legal framework” designed to create “a Single Payment Market where improved economies of scale and competition would help to reduce cost of the payment system.” Being “complemented by industry’s initiative for a Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) aimed at integrating national payment infrastructures and payment products for the euro-zone,” the Proposal was designed to “establish a common framework for the Community payments market creating the conditions for integration and rationalisation …

Impacts Of Investment Treaties On Health And Human Rights, Gus Van Harten

Articles & Book Chapters

While investment treaties could help protect health and promote human rights, they are rather often used as a means to discourage governments from taking action. The treaties allow foreign investors to initiate investor-state dispute settlement (or ISDS) proceedings against states for their legislative, executive, administrative, and judicial decisions at any level. Thus, they provide a powerful tool for “foreign” investors to frustrate state action in virtually any area, including health and human rights. This article describes how ISDS provisions have impacted health-related decision- making by states and, in so doing, weakened their abilities to fulfill their human rights obligations.

Cryptocurrencies And The Evolution Of Banking, Money And Payments, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

This paper explores cryptocurrencies against the backdrop of the history of monetary, banking and payment systems, from a legal perspective. Providing a historical overview beginning in Antiquity, it explores just how today’s cyber revolution compares against some key predicate operations, and situates cryptocurrencies in the context of the long-running evolution of bank payment intermediation and monetary development.

Is Cryptocurrency Money And Why Does It Matter?, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

The emergence of Bitcoin heralded the era of crypto and digital currencies designed for use in the general economy. But are these new currencies considered money and is current Canadian law adequate to accommodate them as money?

What You Need To Know

• Cryptocurrency denotes a digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the execution of payment transactions on a decentralized network.
• "Money" is an element in definitions that determine the scope of a few statutes. As well, unlike property in general, money passes to a taker in good faith …

Leaders In The Expansive And Restrictive Interpretation Of Investment Treaties: A Descriptive Study Of Isds Awards To 2010, Gus Van Harten

Articles & Book Chapters

This article provides an empirical analysis of interpretive discretion in investor–state dis- pute settlement (ISDS). Since the late 1990s, foreign investors have brought hundreds of investment treaty claims against states, leading to numerous awards in which arbitrators have interpreted investment treaties. Arbitrators may resolve ambiguities in the treaties in expansive or restrictive ways, thereby affecting the compensatory promise of ISDS for foreign investors and corresponding risks for states. Which arbitrators have contributed most to expansive or restrictive approaches? To examine this question, data was analysed on arbitrators’ resolutions of contested legal issues, such as the permissibility of parallel or minority …

Central Bank Digital Currencies: The New Era Of Mondern-Day Banking, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

An internal report submitted in March to the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), presents an initial analysis of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

What You Need To Know

• The report poses no immediate legal implications.
• Lawyers and policy makers ought to be prepared to engage in discussions which lead to decision making as to such developments as well as to address the developments as they arise.
• The introduction of a CBDC in one jurisdiction could adversely affect others. Central banks that have introduced or are seeking to introduce a CBDC should …

Book Review - How The Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation And The Threat To Democracy, By Mehrsa Baradaran (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2015), 336 Pp., $29.95, Stephanie Ben-Ishai

Articles & Book Chapters

In her bold and timely new book, Professor Baradaran brings an American perspective, supported by detailed empirical data and historical analysis, to bear on how to solve the problem of financial exclusion. She begins by situating her analysis in the context of the important relationship between banks and governments. A social contract has existed between banks and government since the earliest days of the Republic. The government supports banks through trust-inducing insurance, bailouts, liquidity protection, and a framework that allows for the allocation of credit to the entire economy. Banks support government by operating the central machinery of the economy …

The European Union’S Emerging Approach To Isds: A Review Of The Canada-Europe Ceta, Europe-Singapore Fta, And European-Vietnam Fta, Gus Van Harten

Articles & Book Chapters

The European Union’s approach to ISDS is examined based on the available textual evidence in proposed or negotiated trade agreements. The evaluation focuses on three criteria: judicial independence, procedural fairness, and balance in the allocation of rights and responsibilities. Each criteria arises from concerns about the powerful and far-reaching arbitration mechanism at the core of ISDS and its role to decide the legality of sovereign conduct and allocate public funds to foreign investors. The main conclusions are that, in pursuing a massive expansion of ISDS in new trade agreements, the European Union has taken only partial steps on the issue …

The Order To Pay Money In Medieval Continental Europe, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

This chapter discusses the evolution of non-cash payment mechanisms in the course of the development of the medieval banking system in Europe. The chapter sets out three categories of a medieval continental financier. The first category, pawnbrokers, consisted of lenders who lent out of their capital primarily for consumption who played no role in the development of the payment system. The second category consisted of moneychangers who accepted deposits and whose practices were rooted in in the manual exchange of coins. The third category consisted of exchange bankers whose practices emerged from the exchange of money in long distance trade. …

Protecting Reasonable Expectations: Mapping The Trajectory Of The Law, Edward J. Waitzer, Douglas Sarro

Articles & Book Chapters

The doctrine of reasonable expectations has evolved into a powerful tool for judicial and regulatory activism and, as a result, a bellwether for the trajectory of the law. The concept has broadened — both in scope and in the range of potential claimants. Yet it has been used to achieve goals that are remarkably consistent across different areas of law: first, to require powerful actors to treat stakeholders fairly, which entails treating them with honesty and avoiding actions that would impose unnecessary or disproportionate costs on them; second, to uphold the integrity of legal or regulatory regimes by remedying actions …

The Fictitious Payee After Teva V. Bmo: Has The Pendulum Swung Back Far Enough?, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

Under Section 20(5) of the Bills of Exchange Act (‘‘BEA s. 20(5)”) where on a bill of exchange ‘‘the payee is a fictitious or non-existing person, the bill may be treated as payable to bearer.” A bill of exchange includes a cheque. Where BEA s. 20(5) applies to a cheque, its effect is to reallocate forged endorsement losses from banks involved in the collection and payment of the cheque to the drawer. Quite recently, in commenting on Raza Kayani LLP v. Toronto-Dominion Bank, I highlighted the ongoing confusion in the judicial interpretation of BEA s. 20(5) (‘‘Kayani Comment”). That comment …

Reaffirmation Of Debt In Consumer Bankruptcy In Canada, Stephanie Ben-Ishai

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Security Interests In Bank Deposits Under Ucc Article 9: A Perspective, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

In the course of the 19th century, the process of the characterization of the bank deposit as a loan, so as to be owned by the banker to the customer as a debt on a loan, reached in the common law its logical conclusion. The landmark case is Foley vs Hill.

Being Virtuous And Prosperous: Sri’S Conflicting Goals, Benjamin J. Richardson, Wes Cragg

Articles & Book Chapters

Can SRI be a means to make investors both virtuous and prosperous? This paper argues that there can be significant tensions between these goals, and that SRI (and indeed all investment) should not allow the pursuit of maximizing investment returns to prevail over an ethical agenda of promoting social and economic justice and environmental protection. The discourse on SRI has changed dramatically in recent years to the point where its capacity to promote social emancipation, sustainable development and other ethical goals is in jeopardy. Historically, SRI was a boutique sector of the market dominated by religious-based investors who sought to …

Canadian Pension Funds: Investments And Role In The Capital Markets And Corporate Governance, Poonam Puri, P. M. Vasudev

Articles & Book Chapters

The article analyzes Canadian pension funds from the perspectives of corporate governance and the capital markets. It reviews their investment allocations and revenue patterns since the 1990s and identifies significant changes. The article finds that pension funds, as shareholders, have turned more activist and they wield considerable influence on corporate governance. They also contribute to shaping public policy, as evident from the relaxation of the rules on foreign investment and the removal of restrictions on communications among shareholders. The paper predicts that the role of pension funds will likely further expand in the future, given the constant rise in their …