Hart Publishing – serie

This authoritative textbook offers a thorough, theoretical and practical overview of the current EU legal framework applicable to capital markets. It is intended to enable a critical analysis of the overall regulatory principles as well as the interaction between market actors and EU law which has shaped the regulatory agenda both at national and EU level. The book gives an overview of the foundations of EU capital markets and touches upon issuer disclosure obligations, inappropriate market practices and gatekeepers. EU law is the main focus, complemented by comparative analysis where applicable, primarily relating to UK, French and German laws. Ideal for upper-level undergraduate or graduate law students taking a module in Capital Markets Law, Securities Regulation, Corporate Finance Law or EU Company Law. Also useful for accounting, business or economics MSc students who need to broaden their understanding of the legal aspects of capital markets, and for academics and policy makers.

This book fills a gap in the existing literature by providing a thorough assessment of EU regulations as a source of secondary legislation and their application in all twenty-seven Member States. It also explores that application in neighbouring countries. EU regulations are perceived as the strongest and the most effective sources of EU secondary legislation and it is well-established by the Court of Justice of the European Union that their provisions have vertical and horizontal direct effect. Part 1 of this book examines these points, providing a backdrop to the analysis in the remaining chapters. Parts 2 and 3 focus on the national reception of EU regulations in Member States, and in selected neighbouring jurisdictions. Written by leading practitioners and academics, the book offers both a conceptual underpinning to this element of the European Union’s law-making, as well as its practical application.

This book examines the international standards relating to information exchange, identifying its importance in relation to combatting money laundering, terrorist financing and fraud.Its timely publication follows the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) rating the UK’s anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing regimes as amongst the best in the world in its fourth Mutual Evaluation Report.The book features an alternative review via three case studies - money laundering, terrorism financing and general fraud. These illustrate the importance of information exchange and highlight flaws in the UK’s legal framework, challenging the conclusions of the FATF. Considering this comprehensive analysis, the book then provides recommendations for reform.

This open access book explores the High Court’s powers under its inherent jurisdiction and wardship in relation to children and incapacitous and vulnerable adults.The book introduces the inherent jurisdiction and investigates its place in the modern law. Part 1 provides a comprehensive history of the inherent jurisdiction, before giving a detailed account of the core principles and procedure applicable today, and comparing the approaches taken in Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Part 2 considers the court’s use of its inherent jurisdiction in specific categories of case, including child abduction, medical decision-making about children, child protection, incapacitous and vulnerable adults.Despite its ancient roots, the inherent jurisdiction is relied on by High Court judges on a daily basis, in both everyday and cutting-edge cases. This book argues that the court’s approach to some of these cases is justified, but that judges often make unnecessary and inappropriate use of the inherent jurisdiction. Through its critical examination of the modern use of wardship and the inherent jurisdiction, the book is essential reading for practitioners and researchers working in this field.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

This book reassesses AV Dicey’s legacy in political and legal thought through the reflections of leading scholars who consider his importance not only in today’s British constitutional and legal culture but also in other foreign constitutional cultures.Every student in law and in politics, every law faculty and most legal practitioners in the world are aware of who Albert Venn Dicey (1835–1922) was and what he wrote. Yet, this fame does not mean that Dicey’s legacy is not controversial and debated in the present world. This book considers why Dicey’s late Victorian constitutional and political thinking is still alive. In spite of all the transformations that have taken place in public law in the UK in the last hundred years, the book argues that Dicey managed to grasp and to crystallise something of the British political identity and culture. Hence the long-lasting fire-power of his constitutional and political thinking. The book also considers that there is something even more prescient in Dicey’s writings, for the UK but also for countries that have adopted his understanding of the rule of law and/or of parliamentary government. Dicey identified one of the most fundamental political issues at stake: the nature of the relationship between public law and democracy. The book looks closely at the alliance between public law and democratic spirit. This alliance needs to be reassessed from a legal, historical and comparative perspective. This edited collection, gathering authors from different countries, from various legal systems and from diverse backgrounds, tackles this task.

This masterful work brings together the crème de la crème of EU law academics and practitioners in celebration of the life and work of Eleanor Sharpston, KC.As one of the foremost Advocates General serving the Court of Justice, her opinions shaped various aspects of EU procedural and substantive law. Many of them have quickly become classics (Ruiz Zambrano, Sturgeon, Miles, Bougnaoui, and Farrell II) and they will continue to shape EU law for decades to come. Her contribution and legacy is expertly assessed over six parts of this book spanning: her career: EU constitutional law; fundamental rights and citizenship; litigation; internal market; and external relations. This is a worthy commentary on a truly remarkable legal legacy.

This book explores the impact of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) when defining and protecting pension entitlements as property rights. The sustainability of pension systems in Europe is threatened by mounting public debt and demographic shifts. In recent decades, governments have addressed these challenges by implementing reforms to balance financial stability and guarantee adequate retirement benefits. Many of these reforms have faced legal challenges from activists and lawyers in domestic courts, based on ‘stand-still’ and ‘non-retrogression’ constitutional principles. However, Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the ECHR offers an alternative approach that protects social security entitlements, including pensions, as private property, deserving of protection against unjustified state interference. This book explores the historical legal rationale employed by the Court to establish social security entitlements as private property. It further examines how the Court has assessed reforms through a proportionality assessment that weights public interests against individual rights. This analysis distils key principles such as reasonableness, non-discrimination, and fair distribution of burdens that can guide policymakers towards responsible, rights-compliant reform. Hartmann-Cortés prompts critical inquiry into an often-overlooked framework that will be of interest to policymakers, legal scholars, and anyone engaged in debates at the intersection of pension law, property rights, and social welfare law.

This book uncovers how video game contracts act as monologues of power, moulding players to align with proprietary ideologies. In the era of interactive technologies, the player emerges as a vital yet curiously overlooked figure. While copyright law governs the creation and distribution of these technologies, it sidesteps the player, leaving private contracts to define their role and obligations. Using video games as a case study, this book fills the gap left by copyright law, offering an innovative socio-legal methodology to interrogate and challenge harmful contractual norms.By analysing contracts as a form of critical discourse, the book exposes the contradictions and idealisations embedded in these agreements, which often serve to reinforce industry priorities. It is an essential resource for scholars in intellectual property law, video game studies, and socio-legal research, contributing to pressing debates on user rights and the shifting balance of power in interactive industries.With its fresh perspective on the interplay of copyright, contract, and cultural participation, the book redefines the player's role in a rapidly evolving digital landscape, offering new tools to understand and critique the legal frameworks shaping this most interactive of industries.

This book presents a positive account of State aid and subsidy control law at the EU, UK, and global levels. It provides the keys to understanding how it is adjusting to emerging realities.Industrial policy, decarbonisation, de-risking of supply chains: the regulation of subsidies is at the forefront of the transformations that the world economy is undergoing. This book provides an overview of the foundations of EU State aid law, one of the most dynamic areas of EU law. An up-to-date and accessible framework explains the core conditions underpinning the notion of State aid – including advantage and selectivity.The book also looks at how the EU model has changed over the past decade. It helps navigate the complex case law on the application of EU State aid law to tax rulings concluded with large multinationals (such as the Apple saga) as well as the perma-crisis of the regime up until the adoption of the Clean Industrial Deal Framework.The ways in which the EU model extends its reach beyond its borders – convergence and unilateral expansion – are also addressed. The UK Subsidy Control Act 2022 and the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation are discussed and put into context.Conceived as a 'modular' book, it can be used both as a tool to navigate the fundamentals of the discipline and as a map to reflect upon its uncertain future.

This book analyses the extent to which the common law can accommodate the new issues arising from the AI revolution, and where legislation may instead be necessary.In doing so, the book takes into account not only doctrinal principles but also conceptual and theoretical foundations of common law.Over the next few decades, the use of AI in commercial and other transactions is likely to be one of the most disruptive influences ever to affect private law. Its impact will be wide and deep, affecting not simply the traditional areas of contract and tort but also agency, trusts, fiduciary relations and a great deal besides. The common law is known to be extremely flexible, and to some extent rules can be organically stretched and manipulated to respond to disruption of this kind. However, there is equally no doubt that such organic development is not enough on its own, and will have to be supplemented by legislative alterations and at times serious changes of thinking.The book therefore discusses how established legal doctrines and principles in private law need to be reconsidered in view of the increasing pervasiveness of intelligent machines capable of taking decisions. The analysis contained in this book provides a key contribution to ongoing debates regarding potential law reform, not only in England and Wales but also in other common law jurisdictions.

This book provides an analysis of the increasing impact on the law in general and divorce law in particular of post-liberalism,which replaces choice with self-discovery. The author shows that post-liberal premises formed the foundation for every aspect of the recent divorce reform proposals. Accordingly, she attributes their failure to the contradictions inherent within post-liberalism. Nevertheless, she concludes that post-liberalism maintains a subtle yet pervasive influence on the law. Specifically, this means that we are held accountable not for what we do but for how we approach our decisions. Thus, for the first time ever, it has become possible to divorce responsibly.

This is the third edition of a successful book which offers students and practitioners an up-to-date overview of developments in Internet law and practice. The editors have once again assembled a team of specialist authors to write about those aspects of Internet law which are of special importance in the global regulation of the Internet and focussed around three principal themes- e-commerce, intellectual property, and privacy, data protection and cyber-crime with, in addition a major contribution on Internet Governance. This edition incorporates for the first time areas such as data protection, privacy and electronic surveillance, cyber crime and cyber security, jurisdiction and dispute resolution online. The sectionon IP contains clear and comprehensive analysis of the many and varied ways in which IP and the internet intersect including open source licenses and the IP problems around search engines. The new edition also takes account of all current cases and legislation, including the draft revised EC Telecoms Package and the Audio Visual Media Services Directive.This book will be essential reading for students, teachers and practitioners interested in Internet law and practice as well as technologists and social scientists. 'The book is easy to read, and...has been well edited...and flows smoothly through the various topics...the book provides a worthwhile overview of this developing area of law throughout the world.' Peter Walsh, International Trade Law Annual 'a thorough and stimulating survey...a good introduction for lawyers and students approaching Internet and e-commerce law for the first time, and a useful course text.' Brian Hutchinson, The Irish Jurist