Understanding Secured Transactions

Understanding Secured Transactions

International Secured Transactions Law

This book focuses on international harmonisation and the law of secured transactions by distilling and analysing the unifying principles of various significant international conventions and instruments such as the UN Convention on the Assignment of Receivables, the Unidroit Convention on International Factoring, the EBRD Model Law on Secured Transactions, the Unidroit Convention on the International Interests in Mobile Equipment and the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions. International secured transactions conventions and instruments facilitate credit and promote economic activity through the creation of harmonised rules. Therefore, given the increasing globalisation of markets, international reform efforts for the harmonised modernisation of secured transactions law have gained pace over recent years. International Secured Transactions Law draws on experiences in both English and US laws in order to identify and illustrate the existing problems that need to be addressed, as well as identify potential solutions. International Secured Transactions Law will be of interest to scholars, students interested in international commercial law, corporate law or comparative secured transactions, and practitioners involved in international commercial transactions.

Secured Transactions Law Reform

Secured transactions law has been subjected to a close scrutiny over the last two decades. One of the main reasons for this is the importance of availability of credit and the consequent need to reform collateral laws in order to improve access to finance. The ability to give security effectively influences not only the cost of credit but also, in some cases, whether credit will be available at all. This requires rules that are transparent and readily accessible to non-lawyers as well as rules that recognise the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. This book critically engages with the challenges posed by inefficient secured credit laws. It offers a comparative analysis of the reasons and the needs for a secured transactions law reform, as well as discussion of the steps taken in many common law, civil law and mixed law jurisdictions. The book, written under the auspices of the Secured Transactions Law Reform Project, informs the debate about reform and advances novel arguments written by world renowned experts that will build upon the existing literature, and as such will be of interest to academics, legal practitioners and the judiciary involved in secured transactions law around the world. The text considers reform initiatives that have taken place up to the end of April 2016. It has not been possible to incorporate events since then into the discussion. However, notable developments include the banks decree passed by the Italian Government on 29th June 2016, and the adoption of the Model Law on Secured Transactions by UNCITRAL on 1st July 2016.