The Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 has demonstrated the fragility of prevailing corporate governance ideas and the weakness of legal means of minimizing risk and highlighting dangers in major banking corporations. Gatekeeper failure has undoubtedly been a significant contributor to this...

The collapse of Northern Rock plc in September 2007 as a result of the financial crisis that had its origins in the sub-prime mortgage bubble in the United States focussed attention on the limited nature of governmental powers in the UK to deal with banks in distress or facing insolvency. The...

The passage of the Banking Act 2009 (UK) was a major landmark in the development of legal tools for the handling of banks in financial difficulties in the United Kingdom. The Act has emerged from over a year of economic crisis and from politically charged debates and consultations that followed...

We have reached a turning point in our efforts to regulate banks and financial institutions by resort to current risk-based models and regulatory structures. As is evident from failures during the global financial crisis that burst upon the scene in later 2007, the use of these risk based and...

Professor Rob McQueen's new social history of British company law reminds us that if we are to fully understand company law, it is useful to be historically informed. McQueen's book has nine chapters, including an Introduction and a conclusion chapter. Chapters 2 and 3 deal with social attitudes...