formidable women… femmes formidables September 30, 2014
Posted by Bradley in : gender , add a commentToday, reading Sergio Puig’s article, Social Capital in the Arbitration Market (the link is to the SSRN version, although I read the published version in volume 25 of the European Journal of International Law at 387-424 (2014)) – a fascinating social network analysis of international arbitration based on ICSID data – I was struck by a reference to the existence of a small number of “formidable women” (e.g. at p 407) in the group of prominent and mostly male arbitrators (“grand old men”). Professor Puig attributes the “formidable women” description to Jason Yackee’s article Controlling the International Investment Law Agency. I’m not sure what I think about this descriptor. It may be intended as complimentary, even a recognition that women have to be even better than men to be part of the club. But I have some reservations. I do know I’d rather be described as formidable in French than in English!
the vaguely united kingdom – devolution for manchester? September 21, 2014
Posted by Bradley in : governance , add a commentReading about the Scottish referendum it seemed to me that many of the arguments for independence applied to parts of England beyond London and the Home Counties. Those parts of the country which aren’t doing as well as the South East, the “desolate” parts where fracking has been thought to be acceptable. Places with proud histories and vibrant presents ignored by southern elites. So it’s not a surprise to read on The Guardian’s web pages:
The Scottish referendum has prompted northern English councils to demand more powers from Westminster, with local leaders complaining that England is “totally overgoverned” from London.
cambridge international symposium on economic crime August 31, 2014
Posted by Bradley in : events , add a commentThis week I am going to this symposium (my very preliminary paper is here).
um alumna appointed to german constitutional court May 23, 2014
Posted by Bradley in : um , add a commentDoris König, an alumna of the Law School, recently President of the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, has just been appointed to a 12 year term as Justice on the German Constitutional Court.
article on interconnectedness May 21, 2014
Posted by Bradley in : financial regulation , add a commentIn the Texas International Law Journal, Breaking Up is Hard to Do: The Interconnection Problem in Financial Markets and Financial Regulation: A European (Banking) Union Perspective.
wolterskluwer/aspen casebook petition May 7, 2014
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , add a commentI just signed the petition here to urge this publisher to abandon its plan to require students to return their books at the end of the semester.
inequality and the troika March 19, 2014
Posted by Bradley in : inequality , add a commentLast week the European Parliament adopted a highly critical resolution on Employment and social aspects of the role and operations of the Troika (a resolution based in part on input from people affected by the policies in question). For example the resolution regrets:
that the conditionality imposed in return for the financial assistance has threatened the EU’s social objectives for several reasons: the EU was ill-prepared and ill-equipped to deal with the problems that arose, not least the immense sovereign debt crisis, a situation that demanded an immediate response in order to avoid bankruptcy; while the programmes are of specific duration, a number of the measures stipulated under these programmes shouldn’t have been long-term in nature; the measures are particularly burdensome, mainly because the worsening of the economic and social situation was not noticed in time, because little time was allowed to implement them, and because proper impact assessments were not made of their distributional impact on different groups of society; despite appeals by the Commission, EU funds left over from 2007-2013 framework have not been used in a prompt manner; the measures could have been accompanied by better efforts to protect vulnerable groups, such as measures to prevent high levels of poverty, deprivation and health inequalities resulting from the fact that low income groups are especially dependant on public health systems
Ironically, on the same day the IMF Survey Magazine contained an article with the title Sound Policy Design: the Efficient Way to Cut Inequality which cited the IMF’s recent staff discussion Redistribution, Inequality,
and Growth and policy paper on Fiscal Policy and Income Inequality. This work suggests that inequality was a factor which contributed to the onset of the crisis. But, as the European Parliament points out, the IMF’s responses to the crisis have also exacerbated inequality in the “rescued” countries.
cameron on benn March 14, 2014
Posted by Bradley in : britishness , add a commentHere is the rather ungenerous reaction:
I am sorry to hear that Tony Benn has died. He was a magnificent writer, speaker, diarist and campaigner, with a strong record of public and political service. There was never a dull moment listening to him, even when you disagreed with everything he said
Is that really all he could think of to say? He might as well not have bothered. A magnificent writer? From the Guardian here’s part of what Shami Chakrabarti said:
In an age of spin, he was solid, a signpost and not a weathervane.
Nick Robinson writes that he was “one of the biggest political personalities this country has ever seen.”
market manipulation and sports March 6, 2014
Posted by Bradley in : governance , add a commentThe UK Treasury has published a news release with the title LIBOR funds to support first Invictus Games in London (details of other payments from the fund to support armed-forces related projects can be seen here). According to the press release the Chancellor said:
I am pleased that we have been able to support the very first Invictus Games in London using the LIBOR fund. We’re using money raised from fines on those who demonstrated the very worst of values to support the very best of values, injured service personnel from around the world. This landmark event will be a real inspiration for future generations.
I have never really understood the rationale for applying these funds in this way. It seems to me that the Government has an obligation to support the armed forces in all sorts of ways and that relying on the happenstance of funds derived from fraud is not the way to go about providing the support. Then again, linking the two quite separate things almost makes it sound as though it was a good thing that people manipulated Libor over many years. What will the UK Government fund with proceeds from the investigations into manipulation in the foreign exchange market, I wonder? Early childhood education? Food banks? The dredging of canals? From this perspective we could say we need more fraud to help more people. But that can’t be right, can it?
third party debt orders and paying agents February 26, 2014
Posted by Bradley in : markets , add a commentThe English Commercial Court (Mr. Justice Blair) has held in Merchant International Company Ltd v Naftogaz and the Bank of New York Mellon that there is no jurisdiction to make a third party debt order (these used to be called garnishee orders) with respect to funds held by a bank as a paying agent for a note issue. The reason was that the funds when held by the paying agent were not owed as a debt to the note issuer. And this was so even though the issuer responded to the judgment creditor’s attempts to obtain the funds designed for the investors by paying further funds to the paying agent, and some of the money was repaid to the judgment debtor:
Though the balance of the money was repaid in due course, I do not consider that this was pursuant to an obligation that was capable of being attached by a third party debt order. This avoids a conclusion that would mean that MIC had in effect itself created a debt by virtue of the action it had taken. Whilst it was suggested on its behalf in argument that it had “got lucky”, it does not follow that there was an attachable debt.
The doctrinal issues are different from those in NML Capital v Argentina but the decision does suggest it may be better to be acting as a paying agent in London than in New York.