International Financial Standards and the Explanatory Force of Lex Mercatoria

The global financial crisis has cast a strong light on some hitherto obscure corners of the financial world, provoking an outpouring of calls for concerted international action. “Hard law” having disappointed, can “soft law”, in the form of international financial standards, substitute for traditional national legislation. This article examines some of the difficulties associated with the “international standards as soft law” discourse. First of all, conceptual problems in the “soft law” discourse itself reveal profoundly different patterns of legal thought cutting across national boundaries, resulting in different understandings of international financial standards. Secondly, recent experience, over the past decade, with some “soft law” international financial standards as both diagnostic and prophylactic tools, has been decidedly mixed, in fact, largely unsatisfactory. Thirdly, the “soft law” discourse in international finance appears strangely remote from the daily grind of international commercial practice, where the discourse is largely unknown. But perhaps in this disconnect between theory and practice lies clues to important normative forces at work in international finance, and in particular the international capital markets. The more one considers the world of international finance, the more obvious become the outlines of centuries old transnational merchant law, the contentious lex mercatoria. The proposition put forward here is that the formal regulation of financial markets is supported by a body of strong and persistent customary law, a lex mercatoria, a rarely acknowledged but powerful undercurrent in finance, especially in its international iteration. The continued prevalence of oral contracting and the stubborn persistence of self-regulatory principles are examples. There are several intriguing implications to this proposition. Is it possible that the global financial crisis represented not only a failure of formal, state-led regulation, as it surely did, but also a breakdown of a lex mercatoria of finance? If that is the case, international standard setters and national regulators, both, ignore this lex mercatoria (the customs and practices of international finance) at their peril. To do so, would be to miss a true, powerful, source of normativity operating in international financial markets

The Wider Context: The Future of Capital Markets Regulation in Developed Markets

At a time of such great turbulence, looking to the future directions of capital markets and their regulation in developed economies is a particularly risky business. We are in the midst of a great sea change. Nevertheless, there are several current, and readily observable, phenomena which are likely to shape capital markets regulation in the near future. First of all, the blurring of the distinctions between developed and developing markets themselves, as well as that between domestic and international markets, has put into question the adequacy of existing regulatory frameworks. Also, the transatlantic dialogue, London – New York, has given way to the rise of “multipolarity”; in an age of instantaneous transmission of information, capital and risk, competing centres of gravity have emerged. In addition, centuries-old market institutions are undergoing a period of dynamic change, producing the equivalent of regulatory jetlag. Among international actors, there are calls for what may be the somewhat indiscriminate widening of the “perimeter” of regulation; costs of compliance mount, regulatory uncertainty sets in. To the numerous, conflicting and perhaps unrealisable, goals associated with capital markets regulation has been added detection and prevention of systemic risk. The two great, albeit quite different, capital market regulatory models (those of the United States and the United Kingdom) have taken a beating; it is an open question as to what will take their place. Finally, in face of the virtually insurmountable difficulties of actually creating a World Financial Regulator (to say nothing of its desirability), two organisations, one created in direct response to the Global Financial Crisis, and the other, decades-old, are filling the void. None of these factors operates independently, of course; all interact, contributing to the potential uncertainty and complexity of outcomes

Niche Markets and Their Lessons

Markets are full of nooks and crannies. Out of the glare of the big economies and their public exchanges, markets specializing by financial product, activity, or industry thrive, often attracting little by way of formal regulatory oversight. But there is another kind of specialized market, one which is geographically and politically determined albeit internationally focused. Luxembourg, Ireland, Dubai, Bahrain, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, among others, these are some of the world’s niche markets.It is a hard business being a niche market, operating in a competitive and often unforgiving environment, engaging in constant repositioning and facing inherent limitations on growth. Surprisingly, perhaps, there are lots of niche markets and a very diverse grouping they are, deploying a variety of survival strategies. In all cases, state capitalism, in various guises, supports these markets. In earlier times, reputation, a friendly regulator, and good business practices might have sufficed. Now, there is a new dynamic. This chapter in a new book, International Capital Markets: Law and Institutions (Oxford University Press, 2014), examines the characteristics of niche markets, such as a high tolerance for legal pluralism and the role of state capitalism, the vulnerabilities of niche markets, especially to change, and the secrets of their success

A hauntology of participatory speculation

In this paper I conduct a hauntological analysis of participatory speculation, within the context of a study into understanding the potential for increasing recognition of LGBT+ young people’s experiences of hate crime and hate incidents. Hauntology provides a means to further situate accounts of speculation in Participatory Design by sensitising us to the interplay of the virtual and the actual that enables us to expand our sense of the possible. Through understanding how participatory speculation is shaped by absent presences, this paper contributes to the discussion of post-solutionist practices in PD that foster care and responsibility across multiple sites and forms of participation in the face of issues that resist resolution. I conclude by considering by translating speculation into shared spaces of wonder, Participatory Design can foster ethical commitments that stay with the trouble

Three Dimensional MHD Wave Propagation and Conversion to Alfven Waves near the Solar Surface. I. Direct Numerical Solution

The efficacy of fast/slow MHD mode conversion in the surface layers of sunspots has been demonstrated over recent years using a number of modelling techniques, including ray theory, perturbation theory, differential eigensystem analysis, and direct numerical simulation. These show that significant energy may be transferred between the fast and slow modes in the neighbourhood of the equipartition layer where the Alfven and sound speeds coincide. However, most of the models so far have been two dimensional. In three dimensions the Alfven wave may couple to the magneto-acoustic waves with important implications for energy loss from helioseismic modes and for oscillations in the atmosphere above the spot. In this paper, we carry out a numerical ``scattering experiment'', placing an acoustic driver 4 Mm below the solar surface and monitoring the acoustic and Alfvenic wave energy flux high in an isothermal atmosphere placed above it. These calculations indeed show that energy conversion to upward travelling Alfven waves can be substantial, in many cases exceeding loss to slow (acoustic) waves. Typically, at penumbral magnetic field strengths, the strongest Alfven fluxes are produced when the field is inclined 30-40 degrees from the vertical, with the vertical plane of wave propagation offset from the vertical plane containing field lines by some 60-80 degrees.Comment: Accepted for the HELAS II/ SOHO 19/ GONG 2007 Topical Issue of Solar Physic

Resonant Absorption as Mode Conversion? II. Temporal Ray Bundle

A fast-wave pulse in a simple, cold, inhomogeneous MHD model plasma is constructed by Fourier superposition over frequency of harmonic waves that are singular at their respective Alfven resonances. The pulse partially reflects before reaching the resonance layer, but also partially tunnels through to it to mode convert to an Alfven wave. The exact absorption/conversion coefficient for the pulse is shown to be given precisely by a function of transverse wavenumber tabulated in Paper I of this sequence, and to be independent of frequency and pulse width.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted (15 Nov 2010) by Solar Physics. Ancillary file (animation) attache

Resonant Absorption as Mode Conversion?

Resonant absorption and mode conversion are both extensively studied mechanisms for wave "absorption" in solar magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). But are they really distinct? We re-examine a well-known simple resonant absorption model in a cold MHD plasma that places the resonance inside an evanescent region. The normal mode solutions display the standard singular resonant features. However, these same normal modes may be used to construct a ray bundle which very clearly undergoes mode conversion to an Alfv\'en wave with no singularities. We therefore conclude that resonant absorption and mode conversion are in fact the same thing, at least for this model problem. The prime distinguishing characteristic that determines which of the two descriptions is most natural in a given circumstance is whether the converted wave can provide a net escape of energy from the conversion/absorption region of physical space. If it cannot, it is forced to run away in wavenumber space instead, thereby generating the arbitrarily small scales in situ that we recognize as fundamental to resonant absorption and phase mixing. On the other hand, if the converted wave takes net energy way, singularities do not develop, though phase mixing may still develop with distance as the wave recedes.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables; accepted by Solar Phys (July 9 2010

Total Income of Canadian Farm Operators, 2003

Farm Analysis Bulletins (FAB) are undertaken to provide a better understanding of Canadian agriculture at the farm level. Using data from various sources such as Census, Farm Financial Surveys (FFS), Taxfiler, NISA database, etc, FAB's provide information on farm situation as well as highlighting and discussing farm related issues. This farm analysis bulletin provides an overview of the income situation of Canadian farm operators in 2003. The information is based on a sample of tax records from the Net Income Stabilization Account/Taxation Data Program (NISA/TDP) database. It includes information on operators of unincorporated farms reporting total operating revenues of $10,000 and over or those operating an incorporated farm reporting total operating revenues of$25,000 or more. Communal farming operations are excluded. The NISA/TDP is a major source of financial data for the Whole Farm Data Project (WFDP). The information from personal income tax records is valuable because it provides detailed revenue and expense data and allows estimates of off-farm income for farm families.Net Income Stabilization Account, NISA, Taxation Data Program, TDP, Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics, Financial Economics,

Orphanhood and Schooling in South Africa: Trends in the vulnerability of orphans between 1993 and 2005

Using 11 nationally representative surveys conducted between 1993 and 2005 this paper assesses the extent to which the vulnerability of orphans to poorer educational outcomes has changed over time as the AIDS crisis deepens in South Africa. This paper seeks to establish whether the fear that extended families are no longer effective safety nets may be overstated or whether traditional coping strategies are indeed breaking down. Patterns of care giving for orphans do appear to be shifting over time but these changes are taking place within the extended family safety net. Orphans are still absorbed into extended families but single orphans are increasingly less likely to live with the surviving parent and there is an increasing reliance on grandparents as caregivers. At every point in time cross-sectional evidence suggests that orphans are at risk of poorer educational outcomes with maternal deaths generally having stronger negative effects than paternal deaths. Paternal deaths are strongly associated with poorer socio-economic status and much of the deficit experienced by children who have lost a father is explained by the relative poverty of their current household. In contrast maternal deaths appear to be directly associated with poorer schooling outcomes rather than channelled through socio-economic status. The results in this paper suggest that parental involvement and relatedness to the household are among the multiple pathways through which parental death affects a child’s schooling. Despite a significant increase in the number of orphans over the last decade this paper finds no evidence of a systematic deterioration in traditional coping strategies with respect to orphan’s educational outcomes.