Property in Securities
A Comparative Study

Micheler analyses the legal nature of investment securities in German, Austrian and English law.

Eva Micheler (Author)

9780521832656, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 June 2007

284 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.588 kg

Micheler analyses the German, Austrian and English law of securities, addressing the rules governing transfers of securities, including unauthorised transfers, equities arising out of defective issues, and the holding of securities through intermediaries. The book presents an account of the current English, German and Austrian regimes. It has been written with a view to explaining the German and Austrian regime to readers with a common law background and to explaining the English regime to readers with a civil law background. Micheler also aims to determine whether globalisation will cause the two different approaches to converge. It concludes that the respective rules in all three jurisdictions have historically evolved consistently with incumbent legal doctrine. This pattern of change is likely to continue. Convergence will occur on a functional rather than doctrinal level. Moreover, recent reform initiatives advanced by the UNIDROIT and the EU will lead to functional rather than doctrinal convergence.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Convergence and Path-Dependence
Part II. English Law: 2. Paper Transfers
3. Dematerialisation
4. Impact on the institutional framework
5. Defective issues
6. Unauthorised transfers
7. Indirect holdings
8. Conclusions
Part III. German and Austrian Law: 9. Historic starting point
10. Paper transfers
11. Impact on the institutional framework
12. Immobilisation and its legal analysis
13. Evidence of convergence?
14. Conclusions
Part IV. Conclusions: 15. Legal development as a path dependent process
16. Legal doctrine and market infrastructure
17. Implications for convergence.

Subject Areas: Laws of Specific jurisdictions [LN], Comparative law [LAM], Business & management [KJ]