Law Commons^™

Against Regulatory Displacement: An Institutional Analysis Of Financial Crises, Jonathan C. Lipson

Jonathan C. Lipson

This paper uses “institutional analysis”—the study of the relative capacities of markets, courts, and regulators—to make three claims about financial crises.

First, financial crises are increasingly a problem of “regulatory displacement.” Through the ad hoc rescues of 2008 and the Dodd-Frank reforms of 2010, regulators displace market and judicial processes that ordinarily prevent financial distress from becoming financial crises. Because regulators are vulnerable to capture by large financial services firms, however, they cannot address the pathologies that create crises: market concentration and complexity. Indeed, regulators may inadvertently aggravate these conditions through resolution tactics that consolidate firms, and the volume and …

The Checks And Balances Of Good Corporate Governance, John Lessing

John Lessing

Good corporate governance requires a range of regulatory checks and balances - or mechanisms - to be effective. If one mechanism fails, the system will fail like a chain with a weak link. This article provides an overview and brief explanation of the main checks and balances a country needs to have a good corporate governance system. It is of particular relevance to countries with transition economies. However, it is also important in developed countries as recent corporate collapses and failures in the financial system have illustrated.

Implications Of The Uk Companies Act 2006 For Institutional Investors And The Corporate Social Responsibility Movement, Gordon L. Clark, Eric R. W. Knight

Eric R Knight

Non-governmental organisations, activists, and the public-at-large hold large firms accountable on many issues including their environmental footprints and the social standards of their suppliers around the world. For those coming from European social democratic traditions, stakeholders have a legitimate voice in the affairs of the corporation especially in two-tiered governance regimes that separate supervision from management. Notwithstanding attempts to re-write their proper roles and responsibilities, the Anglo-American corporation is widely believed to be the medium for the accumulation of shareholder value.

Recently, however, a counter-argument has emerged suggesting that the UK Companies Act 2006 broke with this tradition to embrace …