Introduction

Updated: July 18, 2019 (Bibliography).

International Financial Law is a framework of rules, standards and practices that govern international financial markets and transactions. The objective of this framework is to create international financial stability. This stability has to be created in an environment of national jurisdictions, each pursuing their own national interest and governance standards, and is constantly threatened by the consequences of increasing globalization, technological development and financial innovation.

This Research Guide provides a starting point for research on the International Financial Law. It contains open access publications and legal materials available in the Peace Palace Library, both in print and electronic format. Books, articles, bibliographies, periodicals, serial publications and documents of interest are presented in the Selective Bibliography section including links to the PPL Catalogue when available. Special attention is given to our subscriptions on databases, e-journals, e-books and other electronic resources. Finally, this Research Guide features links to relevant websites and other online resources of particular interest.

Bibliography

New titles

Librarian's choice

• Conti-Brown, P., and R.M. Lastra (eds.), Research Handbook on Central Banking, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018.

  

  This book focuses on global central banks as institutions and not abstractions, providing historical and practical detail about how central banks work and the challenges they face. The book offers the most interdisciplinary treatment of global central banks published to date by addressing key questions regarding where they come from, how they have changed, and the challenges they face during uncertain times. Divided into two parts, the Research Handbook firstly takes readers on a global tour, covering central banks in the US, Latin America, Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, China, Africa, and more. In the second part, authors delve into themes of broad application, including transparency, independence, unconventional monetary policy, payment systems, and crisis response. The interdisciplinary mix of contributors include some of the most prominent names in central banking as well as a new generation of scholars who are shaping the conversation about central banks and their role in global politics, economics, and society at large.

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• Momani, B., and M.R. Hibben, What's Wrong with the IMF and how to Fix it, Cambridge, UK, Polity, 2018.

  

  The IMF stands at a crossroad. Derided as increasingly irrelevant in the first decade of the new millennium, the Fund has had its power and prestige restored by the fallout from the 2008 global financial crisis. But will the resurgent IMF assert a more just and sustainable macroeconomic model and provide a voice for poor and marginalized people around the globe? Or will enduring weaknesses within the IMF mean it fails to address these issues? In this book, the authors dissect the variables and institutional dynamics at play in IMF governance, surveillance, lending, and capacity development to expose the fundamental barriers to change. Identifying four areas that could fix the IMF, they show how these genuine and workable solutions can give the IMF the effectiveness and legitimacy it needs to positively shape twenty-first-century global governance and push back against volatile and regressive forces in the international political economy.

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• Goldmann, M., and S. Steininger (eds.), Democracy and Financial Order: Legal Perspectives, Berlin, Springer, 2018. [e-book]

  

  This book discusses the relationship between democracy and the financial order from various legal perspectives. Each of the nine contributions adopts a unique perspective on the legal and political challenges brought to the fore by the Global Financial Crisis. This crisis and the ensuing sovereign debt crisis in Europe are only the latest in a long series of financial crises around the globe in recent decades. By their very existence, but also as a result of the political turmoil they have created, these financial crises testify to the well-known tensions between democracy and a market-based economic and financial order. However, what is missing in this debate is an analysis of the role of law for reconciling democracy with a market-based financial order. To fill this lacuna, the book focuses on the controversy surrounding the concept of law, thereby adding another variable to the debate on the relation between democracy and capitalism. Each chapter addresses the concept of law from a particular theoretical angle, be it a full-grown legal theory or an approach in political economy that has a particular view of the law.

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• Newman, A.L., and E. Posner, Voluntary Disruptions : International Soft Law, Finance, and Power, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2018. [e-book]

  

  This book argues that international soft law is deeply political, shaping the winners and losers of globalization. Some observers focus on soft law's potential to solve problems and coordinate market participants. Voluntary Disruptions widens the discussion, shifting attention to the ways soft law provides new political resources to some groups while not to others and alters the sites of contestation and the actors who participate in them. Highlighting two mechanisms - legitimacy claims and arena expansion - the book explains how soft law, typically viewed as limited by its voluntary nature, disrupts and transforms the politics of economic governance.

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Database

Blogs

• Vultures Swooping on Debt Carcasses

  Vulture funds are an aspect of sovereign debt, which has become an increasingly important topic in the aftermath of the current crisis. In this third blog in a series of Peace Palace Library Blogs about the Global Financial Crisis, I will highlight the ‘problem’ of vulture funds. What happened with vulture funds in the Argentina case and will it set a precedent for the rest of the (developing) world? Why do these vultures like debt carcasses so much?

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• Tax Havens: Sunny Islands?

  ‘A tropical, sunny island’, like Cayman, is the first thing that pops on our minds when we think of tax havens. Tropical islands are well-known for secrecy jurisdictions. But are they the only players in the so called ‘secrecy game’? And do tax havens influence the current global financial crisis? Are they worth a holiday?

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• Cyprus Crisis: Troika go Home?

  Lately everyone is turning their eyes to Cyprus. The small Mediterranean country is the latest victim of Europe’s debt crisis, in which several members of the Eurozone were brought to the brink of bankruptcy by a combination of highly indebted banks and unsustainable sovereign debts. Last month, a troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund agreed on a rescue plan in respond to Cyprus’ need for a bailout.

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• P.R.I.M.E. Finance : Open for business!

  On 16 January 2012,  the P.R.I.M.E. Finance Foundation has started its activities with an opening conference followed by seminars on Dispute Resolution in the Financial Markets in the Peace Palace in The Hague. The  Foundation oversees the activities of its Panel of Recognized International Market Experts in Finance (P.R.I.M.E. Finance),  chosen for their relevant experience in financial market practice or […]

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• Germany and Liechtenstein: Tax Evasion Dispute!

  The German Federal Intelligence Service paid an informant some 5 million euros for a list with the names of account holders from a Liechtenstein Bank. German investigations thereupon revealed a massive tax evasion scandal! Hundreds of people in Germany are suspected of having stashed away millions of euro in Liechtenstein to escape taxes in Germany.

  The tiny Alpine principality of Liechtenstein, a major European tax haven, accused the Germans of attacking its sovereignty and of breaking the law by buying secret (stolen) data and sending in spies to uncover the scandal.

  The OECD in Paris criticized the Liechtenstein practice of allowing foreigners to open trusts there anonymously by registering them through a local attorney or trustee.
  The policy of “excessive” secrecy of banks in Liechtenstein might have attracted many rich people and more countries are interested in the data bought by the German intelligence agents.

  Interestingly a lot of literature on Liechtenstein is about financial matters, trusts, anti-money laundering issues and the transparency of its fiscal regime. Read more on Liechtensteinand its special place in Europe.

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Links

See also

More Research guides on Economic and Financial Law

• Communications
• Foreign Direct Investment
• World Trade Organization

PPL keywords

• International financial law