Abstract
The traditional literature on comparative law has never provided a comprehensive methodology for a comparative study of financial law. Although some research in this field has been made to quantify and qualify differences and similarities of national regulatory frameworks around the world, few studies have been devoted to exploring what lies behind the formal text of financial rules, i.e. the interplay of the “legal formants” that influence the construction of national and international financial laws and systems. The difficulty of building-up a scholarly methodology in this field is due to a variety of reasons, including the entangled nature of financial rules along with the mainstream opinion of economic sciences playing a major shaping role. But outlining a comprehensive methodology for comparative financial law studies appears today as compulsory. The multifaceted structure of financial markets across a multi-jurisdictional dimension requires deeper insights into how formal and informal rules set the landscape of the financial legal order. The comprehension of this dynamic interplay is in fact instrumental in examining how economic and legal doctrines, social sciences, political ideologies, and cultural frameworks originate and influence the evolution of international finance around the world. Drawing extensively from the scholarship of Mauro Bussani, this chapter seeks to fill this gap by proposing a theory of the origin of financial law. Starting from the analysis of risk and uncertainty as the main rationales of the financial legal framework, we discuss the legal layers underpinning its construction. Formal and informal institutions are equally shapers of financial orders while most of the financial rules originate and live ‘in the shadows’. Against this backdrop, we seek to shed some light upon the actual role played by technocrats and policymaking agencies in implementing these dynamic formants in modern societies. In doing so, we argue that financial law is just a by-product of “the very cultural framework in which it is embedded” while the evolution of global financial markets is deeply influenced by the geopolitical supremacy of the dominant cultures.
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Notes
- 1.
More precisely, the author argues that “one of the reasons for the limited use of the comparative approach in the analysis of financial law lies in the difficulty of the identification of the area of research.”.
- 2.
Professor Mauro Bussani, to which this contribution is dedicated, was mentor and supervisor of the Author during and after his studies at the University of Trieste. Bussani’s extensive scholarship had a profound impact on his academic and professional career.
- 3.
In particular, financial regulations can be divided in sub-sections, each of which aim at dealing with a specific type of risk. Thus, for example, consumer protections rules are meant to reduce the risk of information asymmetries between financial institutions and consumers; bank capital requirements are intended to mitigate credit and market risks; macro-prudential rules are intended to mitigate systemic risks characterizing the financial cycle; deposit insurance rules are constructed as to reduce risks of irrational runs; and disclosure rules aim at countering risks of asset mispricing.
- 4.
By way of example, see J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. Code of Conduct 2017 (available at www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/About-JPMC/document/code-of-conduct.pdf), setting an ethical code of conduct J. P. Morgan Chase employees are deemed accountable for. This code sets minimum obligations that must be followed by any employee to protect and enhance the firm’s reputation in the market.
- 5.
For example, violations of “informal” conduct rules on risk management by Lehman Brothers led lenders and investors to lose confidence in the bank’s ability to pay back their obligation. The ensuing reputational consequences increased Lehman’s capital costs as the bank was unable to obtain short-term funding to maintain its liquidity balance. This market sanction led Lehman Brothers towards bankruptcy.
- 6.
The example of a financial crisis is straightforward. An increase in the number and complexity of financial rules following a financial crisis can be understood as a way to reflect a variation in the degree of risk accepted by the community after the burst. As financial actors will be less prone to absorb the externalities associated with high level of risk and uncertainty after financial turmoil, their risk tolerance will lower accordingly, while, in turn, financial regulation will tighten.
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I gratefully thank Marta Infantino for providing precious comments and academic support.
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Amorello, L. (2020). A Theory of the Origin of Financial Regulation: How Legal Layers Shape International Financial Systems. In: Fiorentini, F., Infantino, M. (eds) Mentoring Comparative Lawyers: Methods, Times, and Places . Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 77. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34754-3_9
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