The Court of the Astana International Financial Centre is a new dispute resolution initiative meant to attract investors in much the same way as it has been done in the case of the courts and arbitration mechanisms of similar financial centres in the Persian Gulf. This paper examines such...

Offshore financial centers are inextricably linked with the global flow of capital. Offshore financial centers encourage short-term investment by reducing market frictions. Lowered tax rates diminish the required expected gains from trading. This study employs data from the IMF's Coordinated...

Lying at the heart of offshore finance is a basic contradiction. On the one hand, offshore finance is fundamentally driven by the desire to protect private property from the state; on the other hand, this property is itself ultimately dependent on the protection of the state. This dilemma has...

Dual class shares (DCS) offer additional classes of shares that provide holders with greater voting rights. The paper aims to investigate why leading financial centres have different attitudes towards DCS, with a focus on the recent reforms of their company law and listing rules with respect to DCS

This paper investigates the determinants and impact of the co-evolution between the international financial markets and the offshore financial centre Luxembourg since the late 1950s. It argues for a historic understanding of decisive, time-sensitive environments that helped Luxembourg to emerge,...