Scott, Hal S. --- "International finance: rule choices for global financial markets" [2007] ELECD 100; in Guzman, T. Andrew; Sykes, O. Alan (eds), "Research Handbook in International Economic Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Research Handbook in International Economic Law

Editor(s): Guzman, T. Andrew; Sykes, O. Alan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843766742

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: International finance: rule choices for global financial markets

Author(s): Scott, Hal S.

Number of pages: 57

Extract:

9. International finance: rule choices for global
financial markets
Hal S. Scott



This chapter is an overview of the field of international finance from the
perspective of law and regulation. It is organized as follows. First, it examines
what the field of international finance is, with respect to law, regulation and
policy. Second, it discusses the degree of integration of national financial
markets, a matter affecting a multiplicity of issues. Third, it looks at the
sources of international financial law and regulation ­ both national and inter-
national. Fourth, it evaluates the overall costs and benefits of the increasing
globalization of international finance. These four sections are all introductory
to the fifth section, the burden of this chapter, which analyzes, with respect to
securities and banking regulation, the decision as to what rules, for example of
the home or host country, or international, apply in particular cases of regula-
tion. The chapter then further examines this issue in the context of sovereign
debt.1
The chapter concludes that, as a positive matter, there has been and will
continue to be a progression toward harmonized rules created and supervised
by supranational authorities in the field of international finance because this
approach minimizes global financial instability and maximizes efficiency. It
also concludes that various schemes to allocate authority between host and
home countries will fail to accomplish these ends satisfactorily.

1. What is international finance?
For economists, international finance has traditionally meant the study of
exchange rates but for policy makers and lawyers ...