This thesis discusses the adaptation and convergence in corporate governance to international norms in Pakistan. Pakistan is an underdeveloped but an emerging market with inefficient legal, regulatory, judicial, institutional and governance norms. In recent times there have been some reforms in the corporate sector of Pakistan but lack of infrastructure and a dearth of research were barriers to reform generally. Therefore, this thesis seeks to identify corporate governance issues in Pakistan, and discusses analytically the possibility and effectiveness of convergence in corporate governance to international norms in Pakistan. To this end, it focuses on three aspects of convergence in corporate governance in Pakistan. First, it discusses the prospects and application of convergence in corporate governance in Pakistan. Second, it analyses critically, from a comparative perspective, three core corporate governance issues in Pakistan. The corporate sector in Pakistan is highly concentrated with an underdeveloped capital market and inefficient enforcement mechanisms. The conflict between shareholders and management, and shareholders inter se are major issues of corporate governance in Pakistan. The former conflict is addressed by reducing agency cost and the latter by ensuring minority protection. These conflicts are analysed comprehensively through comparative studies. Furthermore, the market and judiciary in Pakistan have failed to provide investors with protection. This thesis discusses the reform process in the market and judiciary in order to improve enforcement mechanisms. In addition, it discusses the possibility of convergence and effectiveness of adaptation in these issues. Third, as Pakistan is an ideological country whose constitution prescribes Islam as the state religion which, in turn, prescribes Islamic injunctions as basic norms, convergence to any foreign corporate governance feature will have to pass the litmus test of Islamic norms. Therefore, the thesis also identifies the possibility of filtration of foreign governance features through Islamic norms. The thesis concludes that the corporate sector in Pakistan is underdeveloped with weak investor rights and enforcement mechanisms. There is, therefore, a need to enhance investor protection in order to improve corporate governance which, in turn, will improve the economy of the country. In addition, the conclusion is reached that in convergence to Western corporate governance features in Pakistan, Islamic norms may act as a litmus test which may not be as problematic as it appears at first sight.

This legal study identifies through a case-study of Zimbabwe the range of essential legal reforms an emerging market should implement to establish financial infrastructure that enables the structuring of securitization transactions and the prevention and management of risks – such as those highlighted by the 2007 global financial crisis – that can arise from securitization transactions. The study analyses: (i) laws regulating or relating to prudentially regulated firms that typically use securitization to refinance; (ii) corporate and trust laws to identify legal structures which can be utilised as securitization special purpose vehicles; (iii) the Roman-Dutch law of sale to determine whether it permits the true-sale of financial assets; (iv) various legal risks, including substantive-consolidation, veil-piercing, foreclosure, insolvency and tax risks; (v) the dispute resolution framework; and (vi) the structured finance risk mitigation properties of Zimbabwe‘s financial market regulatory framework. The study concludes that Zimbabwe‘s legal system permits most of the contractual arrangements that constitute a basic securitization transaction. However, its financial services regulatory and gatekeeping framework - which must be reformed - is rudimentary and ill-suited to preventing and managing systemic risks that can arise from securitization. This is the first comprehensive academic study which investigates the extent to which the Roman-Dutch legal system enables the various contractual arrangements that constitute a securitization transaction. It also presents an analytical model for reviewing the securitization-enabling characteristics of emerging markets‘ legal systems and the securitization risk mitigation properties of their financial infrastructures.

This work argues that the development of the Lusaka Stock Exchange into a competitive stock market has been constrained by a number of factors which include inadequate liquidity on the market and weaknesses in the legal framework for regulating public distribution of securities in Zambia. Proposals to overcome these constraints are spelt out in the work. The need to establish a regional stock exchange and promote multiple listings and cross-border trade in securities - so as to stimulate increased liquidity on markets in Eastern and Southern Africa - is noted. The study also provides a comparative analysis of the law in Zambia and that in jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom.

The relationship between law, foreign direct investment (FDI) and development is a neglected area of investigation, and this study seeks to contribute to the understanding of that relationship through an analysis of the legal regulation of FDI in Kuwait. As well as offering a general theoretical appraisal of the role of FDI in development, it puts forward some practical proposals for legislative innovation and administrative reform in Kuwait with the intention of showing how greater encouragement can be given to the expansion of FDI with a view to promoting the country's future economic and social well-being. The approach in this thesis stresses the importance of considering the effectiveness of Kuwait's FDI regulations against the background of the country's historical evolution and in relation to the distinctive patterns of political economy which have emerged in Kuwait's twentieth-century transformation from a traditional to a more modern society with an impressive level of welfare provision. In this respect, considerable attention is given to the significance of the various oil concession agreements between Kuwait and foreign investors for the exploration and marketing of oil. It is these agreements which have led directly to the growth and development of the country's current FDI regulations, and which have gradually enabled Kuwait to determine its own foreign investment policies as British influence has declined and national independence has been gained. Criticisms are offered, however, of the failure of Kuwait to pay sufficient attention to the role of FDI in the non-oil sectors of the economy. The close examination of the law and administrative practice of FDI in Kuwait reveals a range of failings and inadequacies which have tended to have a negative effect on the attraction of FDI. This particular area of policy in Kuwait has developed in a somewhat piecemeal fashion without sufficient coherence and co-ordination.

This thesis consists of a study of English and US corporate finance law and, in particular, the law in relation to hybrid financial instruments. I consider hybrids any financial instrument that presents a mix of equity and debt characteristics. Therefore this thesis excludes from examination all the derivative instruments, while it focuses on two main types of hybrid security, in relation to their relevance to the situation studied: preference shares and convertible bonds. Despite a clear distinction in law between equity and debt, the development of sophisticated hybrid financial instruments has forced regulators to look beyond the legal form of an instrument to its practical substance. As observable in practice, the increase in financial innovation reflects the necessity of the parties to allocate control and cash-flow rights in a way that diverges from the classic allocation resulting from equity and debt. Most of the empirical and theoretical research in this area has focused on the tax advantages of issuing hybrids as a way of reducing the cost of capital or on their capacity to be subordinated to all the creditors and to be unable to trigger the liquidation of the firm in case of default on its payouts. However, very little contribution has been made to the analysis of these securities with regard to their implications for corporate governance. This thesis aims to discuss the rationale for issuing hybrids, and to evaluate the law relative to these instruments against the background of both agency costs and property rights theories. The functional approach unveils an important rationale for issuing hybrids. The UK and US have legal systems characterised by transactional flexibility. They rely heavily on ex post standards strategies to protect preference shareholders and on the judiciary to evaluate the fairness of a transaction. This flexibility places the UK and US legal systems among the most business-friendly countries. The vacuum left by mandatory company law in favour of a major flexibility in the market has pushed the parties to fill it contracting for their rights. In so doing they have facilitated the business relations and better protected themselves with careful drafting.

This thesis investigates in depth the phenomenon of biobanking from an anthropological and socio-legal approach. In recent years there has been an evertighter alliance formed between discoveries in life sciences and capital accumulation. The rapid advances in genomics introduce a new form of capital in the development of technoscience. In order to find biomarkers for genetic association studies in the susceptibility of common complex diseases, the generation of large-scale population resources is deemed to be an important step to support the development of genomics which now transforms its imagery from informatics to therapeutics. Biobanks - collections of human biological materials linked through genetic information - have attracted considerable attention across the globe. These global assemblages of capital and vital politics have led to innovative institutions and arrangements in fields of technoscience and ethics. Though biobanking is an apparently global phenomenon, diverse political innovations and ethical configurations emerge from the specific social and cultural milieux, in which its establishment and operation are situated. This thesis uses recent developments of a longitudinal population-based research resource in Taiwan as a specific instance to analyse the delicate entanglement between politics, capital and life sciences. It explores not only the legal and ethical issues posed by biobanks, such as consent, privacy and property, but also the political and economic aspects of the biobanks that are embedded in the broader global bio-economies. This emphasis, focusing on the way in which biovalue is produced, politico-scientific decisions are made and ethical configurations are framed, allows an opportunity to reassess law and ethics, capital and politics, as well as the role of the state and its populations in this new form of biotechnology.

No description available.

The mutual funds regulation in Middle Eastern countries is still insufficient and lacks the detailed rules that regulate all aspects of the mutual funds industry. Despite the fact that the current mutual fund regulation addresses different aspects of the fund industry, it is still far from the international standards applied in many countries such as the UK and the USA. The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the possibility of exporting certain essential regulatory rules form the mutual funds regulation in the UK to the mutual funds regulation in Middle Eastern countries in order to enhance investors’ protection. Enhancing the mutual funds regulations generally and investors protection particularly would accelerate the development of the mutual funds industry in those countries. The first chapter of the thesis is an introduction. The second chapter defines mutual funds by showing their significant role in the financial market and showing their unique attributes which differentiate them from other financial institutions. The third chapter scrutinises the existing mutual funds laws and regulations and their amendments in the UK, namely the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the Open Ended Investments Companies Regulations 2001 and the Financial Conduct Authority Sourcebook. The fourth chapter examines the governance of mutual funds under the current legal framework in the UK. The fifth chapter focuses on how the features discussed in the previous chapters could be used in Middle Eastern countries. Finally, chapter six provides the general conclusion of the thesis and the contribution of this research. The findings from the research show that the unique nature of mutual funds as useful financial institutions comes from the combination of the advantages offered to the investors by one financial institution. They also illustrate that mutual funds in the UK are governed by a robust legal framework that regulates nearly all aspects of the industry in detail. This legal framework adopts efficient governance mechanisms that provide investors with a high level of protection. The governance mechanisms ensure investors protection and play a key role in mitigating the potential conflicts of interests between the self-interests of the fund management and the interests of the investors. Another important finding of the research is that the current mutual funds regulations in Middle Eastern countries lack the detailed rules, and they do not regulate all aspects of the fund industry. Therefore, mutual funds investors are not well protected. Finally, the research shows that certain regulatory rules form the UK regulations are exportable to Syrian Mutual funds regulations and can be exportable to Middle Eastern countries. These rules will increase investors’ protection and fill the gap between the international standard and those applied in Middle Eastern countries.

Anti-Money laundering legislation has become a major global issue, with nations and organisations under pressure to adhere and comply with strict control measures in place. The United States post 9/11 in league with other big Nations have been at the forefront of strict Anti-Money laundering initiatives, but a fair question to ask is how well the system is really doing? The implementation of the global AML framework is dependent upon the compliance of individual states, thereby making the presence of an adequate legal and institutional framework at national level a requisite requirement for an effective Anti-Money laundering system. Despite the incorporation of strict Anti-Money Laundering regulations into Nigerian laws, the misappropriation of Nigerian moneys, notably by public officials, has continued unabated. While the need for a concise and unambiguous harmonisation of international regulations cannot be overemphasised, and despite the concerted efforts in this regard, a trans-jurisdictional review by this researcher of both primary and secondary sources like conventions and academic literature have unearthed conceptual, legal, regulatory problems, as well as a seeming desire for theoretical, rather than practical compliance. In other words, global AML efforts seem more academic than practical. Accordingly, legal and regulatory reforms to International Anti-Money laundering initiatives can only be achieved with a proper appreciation of the culture and unique peculiarities of the receptive jurisdiction where emphasis is placed on the local environment rather than a mere response to International requirements for the sake of it. International AML regulations, and within this context, the FATF recommendations are meant for universal application, traversing the distinct quirks of diverse cultures, but the test here is its suitability or otherwise to the socio-cultural, political, economic and legal realities of Nigeria. The fleecing of Nigerian public moneys most notably by public officials has continued unabated despite the incorporation of strict AML laws.

No description available.