Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)
June 16, 2013
Abstract:
Stock exchange law is a field that is highly influenced by economic, social, and political factors. This makes research on the concept and on the history of stock exchange law an interdisciplinary challenge: researchers have to link studies of lawyers and legal historians with the works of the social sciences’ other branches, such as economic and social history, political economy, and contemporary economics. The number of sources that require investigation and the difficulties of their interdisciplinary analysis may explain why the fundamentals of stock exchange law and, more generally, of capital markets or securities law have received less attention so far than their economic, social, political, and legal weight would call for.
This article has two purposes. First, we would like to point readers to the concept and history of stock exchange law as an important gap in contemporary research. Second, we hope to inspire such research by presenting a brief overview of the most important factors and events that could form the core of a comprehensive account. For these purposes, we will refrain from summarizing secondary sources, but instead try to bring readers in direct contact with the primary sources that we consider relevant. It goes without saying that our overview will be neither exhaustive nor objective, but rather selective and subjective.
Part I introduces the reader to the term ‘bourse,’ as stock exchanges are referred to in French, German, and many other languages, as well as the rules that constitute ‘stock exchange law.’ Part II outlines the four stages in the history of stock exchange law: the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era (A.), Absolutism and Mercantilism (B.), Industrialization (C.), and National Legislation and European Harmonization (D.). Part III highlights four contemporary challenges that policymakers from all over the world currently have to deal with: profit orientation, internationalization, fragmentation, and automation. Part IV concludes with thoughts on the future of stock exchange law.
Acknowledgement: This article is published in this Research Paper Series with the kind permission of the Virginia Law & Business Review in accordance with its Copyright Agreement.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 48
