Harmonisation of Securities Law —— Custody and Transfer of Securities in European Private Law

----- 证券法：欧洲私法中证券的托管和过户

ISBN: 9789041126399 出版年：2007 页码：442 Haentjens, Matthias Kluwer Law International

The settlement of a cross-border securities transaction is riskier and eleven times more expensive than the settlement of a purely domestic transaction. This dramatic discrepancy is mainly due to differences in national securities laws. Matthias Haentjens argues that national systems of securities law should urgently be harmonised and modernised. Stock exchanges merge and capital markets integrate on a global scale. Yet the settlement of a cross-border securities transaction is an astonishing eleven times more expensive than the settlement of a purely domestic transaction. This dramatic discrepancy in costs is mainly due to differences in national securities laws. But these differences also endanger the safe settlement of a cross-border securities transaction. It is unclear, which system of law must be applied to such a transaction. In a worst case scenario, different applicable systems of law designate different ´owners´ of the same securities. Matthias Haentjens investigated the legal uncertainty currently inherent in securities transactions and concluded that national systems of securities custody and transfer law should urgently be harmonised and modernised. In his dissertation ´Harmonisation of Securities Law´, he compares Dutch, Belgian, French and US securities law and subsequently lists several specific recommendations to the European legislature. Mr. Haentjens argues that the benefits of a radical modernisation of national securities law would be evident for the European legal systems he investigated. His study shows that doctrinal objections to such a harmonisation are generally unconvincing and that current securities custody and transfer laws frustrate commercial practices, more than they facilitate them.