From the dawn of civilization, the ever-growing sophistication of human society, division of labour, specialization, and comparative advantage rendered trade an indispensable part of any human enterprise. The need for trade begets the need for finance, and as trade becomes globally...

This article studies the regulatory strategies to address the potential systemic risk of hedge funds operation in financial markets. Due to the implications of the choice of regulatory strategies and instruments in terms of mitigating systemic risk, the article focuses on one critical aspect of...

This paper argues that blockchains or, more broadly, distributed ledgers provide the first viable avenue toward a common economic and financial ledger where, in an envisioned end-state, all economic actors record all their economic assets/liabilities and economic transactions in one virtual...

This essay, based on the author's presentation last September to the annual meeting of the North American Securities Administration Association (NASAA), addresses several issues related to Rule 506, the most widely-used of the SEC's transactional exemptions from federal registration of...

A crucial and outstanding issue for the European economy and democracy.In March 2009, the European Commission recognized the need to put "the interests of European investors, consumers and SMEs at the centre of the financial markets reform”. The Commission therefore announced it will "ensure...

This paper studies the interplay of the public-private dichotomy and the externalities argument in the context of recently enacted U.S. “Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act of 2010”. Having conducted a historical overview of the concept of public and private domains in...

This article compares the direct regulation of hedge funds in the U.S. prior to the Dodd-Frank Act with the direct regulatory measures to address potential systemic risks of hedge funds ensued in its aftermaths. The direct regulation involves regulatory measures focusing immediately on the...

The function of legal rules as technical instruments of social organisation and how to make them work effectively has become an increasingly importance focus of attention for those interested in regulation. This essay examines the financial regulation in the UK and in particular the regulatory...