Monthly newsletter of L CF - Issue #4

Welcome to our monthly newsletter which launched in March 2021. Read about LCF news, projects and people. Send us your stories, news, books and projects.

The LCF congratulates Shaun Star, one of our paper presenters at the upcoming LCF/Jindal conference series in June who has been awarded the Australia India Impact Award in May 2021.

May also saw our 5th and final seminar in our seminar series “New Voices” for this season. We had the pleasure and honour to launch “Venture Capital Law in China” published by CUP and authored by Dr. Lin Lin of NUS. We thank Cambridge University Press for their kind and helpful support of this event. Dr. Lin has recently been promoted to Associate Professor at NUS, most deservedly as our panel of distinguished speakers attested her. The book gives a comprehensive picture of the development of the VC market in China in the past decades and what role the law and its continuous reform has played to support this rather speedy development. The book also compares the US (and indeed other) approach(es) to its successful VC market in respect of the state’s involvement and role in direct intervention and law making. Following Dr. Lin’s presentation, the panel (Professors Zetzsche, Avgouleas and McCahery) commented with some views on aspects such as types of investors and the peculiarities of exit strategies in the Chinese VC market. We had the added benefit of an introduction to FDI rules in Europe through two colleagues from DLA Piper (Ms Yalcin and Dr. Streit). VC will inevitably involve an element of cross border and inbound investment and is therefore affected by this new legislation in the EU and other important economies such as the UK. China and these “Western” economies may find themselves in quite opposite points of departure in this respect and it is interesting to follow developments in this regard.

The full details of our May event featured above can be seen on our website under “past events” and they are available as on-demand recordings for a small fee here. There are also some presentation slides for download.

First up in June will be our long awaited conference series featuring comparative contract law in the common law world co-organised with Jindal Global Law School, Professor Manasi Kumar. Conference 1 held on 7th and 8th June - all times are in GMT - will deal with the formation of the agreement in different common law jurisdictions. Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart of Oxford University is going to give the keynote address. Each of the three conferences is organised in four discussion panels pairing the authors of the papers to be published in a special issue of the Liverpool Law Review with other subject experts in the field. In conference 1, Professor Paula Giliker of Bristol Law School will present her paper on good faith in contractual negotiations. Professor Mitja Kovac is going to present his paper on “the rise of the mailbox rule”. We will also hear on the role of minors in contracting by Professors Shaun Star, Divyangana Dhankar and Shivangi Gangwar of Jindal GLS. Our distinguished discussants incldue Professor Hector McQueen of Edinburgh Law School, Professor Nigam Nuggehali of BML Munjal University School of Law, Dr. May Fong Cheong of Thomas Moore Law School, ACU and Indian legal consultant and senior law teacher Dr. Nilima Badbhade.

Also in June: LCF are launching Adrian Wooldridge’s book “The Aristocracy of Talent. How Meritocracy made the Modern World” (Penguin, June 2021) on 18th June 2021. The event follows on from our book presentation of Professor Daniel Markovitz’ book “The Meritocracy Trap” in April (see issue 3) and includes some of the panellists to continue the debate of the opportunities and pitfalls of the meritocratic society model.

We also plan two more seminars on financial regulation and civil liability inviting Professor Christos Hadjiemmanuil of the LSE and on transnational commercial law and lex mercatoria presenting topical legal literature under the direction of Professor Jan H. Dalhuisen. Details will follow.

For bookings and updates, check out our website and Eventbrite ticket platform.

Our website has been upgraded by our website host Vistaprint - as had been long advised by them but still took us by surprise - and we have worked towards updating all the links and features.

We also now include a link to a feedback form on our start page and are looking forward to collecting and evaluating your experiences with and thoughts about our services. Fully anonymous of course.

Should you be interested in supporting the LCF you can now purchase memberships from our website. The contribution exceeds the value of the accumulated event fees but will support the accessibility of our events to students and a larger circle of academics and other audiences by making more events available for free.

LCF will be launching a -pro bono- board structure to retain the help and advice of distinguished subject experts and open LCF to the academic and legal community. It is also intended to set up subject specific working groups to run events and research projects. News of members of these boards and project groups will be published soon. LCF welcomes suggestions for subject specialisms.

Our Call for Papers is still out for our annual conference on “The Future of the Commercial Contract in Scholarship and Law Reform.” in October 2021. Bookings can also already be made at an “Early Bird” discount until 18th July 2021.

Bookings continue for our conference series “Contract Law in Common Law Countries - a study in divergence” organised jointly by LCF and Jindal Global Law School in India. The three online conferences take place in June, September, and December 2021. They gather a range of internationally renowned speakers and discussants who will be discussing issues on the formation (June) and the performance (September) of an agreement as well as and remedies and dispute settlement (December). Tickets are available individually or at package prices from Eventbrite. and our website.

Out now: Dr. Maren Heidemann’s “Disclosure Rules in Takeovers: Making Sense of Fragmentation in German Law.” in Dr. Joseph Lee’s “Takeover Law in the UK, the EU and China. State Interests, Market Players, and Governance Mechanisms” (Springer, May/June 2021)

The book draws on the collaboration between the University of Exeter and Tsinghua University combining a number of chapters by subject experts from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and China who had the pleasure to meet at two inspiring seminars in Beijing and London organised by Dr. Lee who is also a long standing co-convenor of the annual LCF conference on commercial contract law. Dr. Heidemann’s chapter explains the German financial market law on disclosure rules also drawing on foreign direct investment as it occurred in the recent Daimler acquisition by the Geely company. It describes the discrepancy between public perception and the reality and limits of law, supervisory authorities and legislature in defining the objectives of private financial market laws and modern public investment control’s objectives.

And of course, as above, Adrian Wooldridge’s “The Aristocracy of Talent. How Meritocracy made the Modern World” (Penguin, June 2021) is out on 3rd June 2021.

Our Forum on financial regulation and civil liability started in December 2020 and consists of a standing panel of subject experts. These include LCF director and founder Professor Mads Andenas QC of the University of Oslo, Professor Olha Cherednychenko of the University of Groningen’s Centre for European Financial Services Law (GCEFSL) which she directs, Professor Guido Alpa of the University La Sapienza in Rome, Professor Jan H. Dalhuisen of King’s College London, Catholic University Lisbon and UC Berkeley, Professor Ettore Lombardi of the University of Florence, Dr. Antonio Marcacci, Senior Compliance Officer of a large bank, Dr. Federico DellaNegra, senior consultant at the ECB, Dr. Marnix Wallinga of Stibbe attorneys in Amsterdam and Dr. Maren Heidemann of LCF, IALS and the CCLS at Queen Mary, University of London. The forum seminars feature further experts and authors discussing new titles and contributions to new developments in international financial services law.