2021-2022
The concept relates to the legal rules relating to finance, finances and financiers – in other words, the rules relating to the process of raising or providing funds or capital or furnishing credit to another person. Financial law is therefore a broad concept, which may include the legal framework applicable to investors, depositors or lenders, financial intermediaries, borrowers and issuers, financial instruments, transactions and contracts, markets and exchanges, or even public authorities overseeing that process. [Apostolos Gkoutzinis]
Scope and syllabus
- Introduction and Sources of Financial Law
- Law Relating to Deposits and Accounts
- Risk
- Sovereign Immunity
- Law Relating to Loans and Credit
- Loan Covenants
- Syndicated Loans
- Legal Aspects of Money and Payments
- Financing of International Trade
- Money Laundering
Unit 1 Introduction to Financial Law
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The Banking System
1.3 Capital Markets
1.4 The Importance of Law for Financial Markets
1.5 The Legal Preconditions for Efficient Financial Markets
1.6 The Institutional Preconditions for Efficient Financial Markets
1.7 Conclusion
Unit 2 The Needs of Finance and the Character of English Financial Law
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Needs of Finance
2.3 The Nature of English Financial Law
2.4 The Principal Sources of English Financial Law
2.5 Conclusion
Unit 3 Deposits and Bank Accounts
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Bank Deposits and the Financial System
3.3 The Banker–Customer Relationship
3.4 The Legal Properties of Bank Accounts
3.5 Confidentiality and Data Protection
3.6 The Law of Electronic Banking
3.7 Conclusion
Unit 4 The Law Relating to Money and Payments
4.1 Introduction to Money and Payments
4.2 The Legal Concept of Money
4.3 The Legal Concept of Payment
4.4 Payments by Bank Transfers
4.5 Payment Systems – Clearing and Settlement
4.6 Conclusion
Unit 5 The Law Relating to Loans and Credit
5.1 Introduction to Lending and Bank-Based Finance
5.2 Forms of Credit
5.3 The Loan Agreement and Principal Questions of Law
5.4 The Law Relating to Consumer Lending
5.5 Conclusion
Unit 6 The Law of Secured Finance
6.1 Introduction to the Mechanisms of Credit Enhancement
6.2 The Economic Rationale of Secured Finance
6.3 Forms of Security – Pledge, Mortgage and Charge
6.4 Issues of Priority and Enforcement
6.5 Key Considerations
6.6 Conclusion
Unit 7 The Law Relating to the Control of Financial Crisis
7.1 Introduction to the 2008–2009 Financial Crisis
7.2 The Northern Rock Banking Crisis
7.3 The Banking Act 2009
7.4 The Definition of a Failing Bank
7.5 Conclusion
Specimen Examination
Unit 8 Questions of Liability
8.1 Introduction to the Concept of Liability
8.2 Doctrinal Bases of Liability
8.3 Advice
8.4 Lender Liability
8.5 Conclusion
Key texts
- Ellinger EP, E Lomnicka, CVM Hare (2011) Ellinger’s Modern Banking Law.
5th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. - McKendrick E (Ed.) (2016) Goode on Commercial Law. 5th Edition. London:
Penguin.
