Re-Imagining Offshore Finance: Market-Dominant Small Jurisdictions in a Globalizing Financial World

by Christopher M. Bruner

Overview

Small jurisdictions have become significant players in cross-border corporate and financial services. Their nature, legal status, and market roles, however, remain under-theorized. Lacking a sufficiently nuanced framework to describe their functions in cross-border finance - and the peculiar strengths of those achieving global dominance in the marketplace - it remains impossible to evaluate their impacts in a comprehensive manner.

This book advances a new conceptual framework to refine the analysis and direct it toward more productive inquiries. Bruner canvasses extant theoretical frameworks used to describe and evaluate the roles of small jurisdictions in cross-border finance. He then proposes a new concept that better captures the characteristics, competitive strategies, and market roles of those achieving global dominance in the marketplace - the "market-dominant small jurisdiction" (MDSJ). Bruner identifies the central features giving rise to such jurisdictions' competitive strengths - some reflect historical, cultural, and geographic circumstances, while others reflect development strategies pursued in light of those circumstances. Through this lens, he evaluates a range of small jurisdictions that have achieved global dominance in specialized areas of cross-border finance, including Bermuda, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and Delaware. Bruner further tests the MDSJ concept's explanatory power through a broader comparative analysis, and he concludes that the MDSJs' significance will likely continue to grow - as will the need for a more effective means of theorizing their roles in cross-border finance and the global dynamics generated by their ascendance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190466879
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/09/2016
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Christopher M. Bruner is Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law at the University of Georgia School of Law. His teaching and scholarship focus on a range of corporate and transactional subjects, including Corporations, Corporate Finance, Deals and Comparative Corporate Law. He conducted comparative research as a visitor to the law faculties of the University of Cambridge, the University of Hong Kong, the University of Leeds, the University of Sydney, the University of Toronto, and the National University of Singapore. He is the author of Corporate Governance in the Common-Law World: The Political Foundations of Shareholder Power (2013), and his articles have appeared in a variety of law and policy journals. He received his A.B., M.Phil., and J.D. from the University of Michigan, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Law School, respectively.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Preface

PART I: SMALL JURISDICTIONS IN CROSS-BORDER FINANCE

Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview

Chapter 2: Conceptualizing the Role of Small Jurisdictions
A. Whither Globalization?
B. Theorizing Small Jurisdictions i. Tax Havens ii. Offshore Financial Centers iii. Micro-States and Global Cities iv. English Legal Origins
C. Capital Mobility and Regulatory Competition

PART II: MARKET-DOMINANT SMALL JURISDICTIONS (MDSJs)

Chapter 3: What Is an MDSJ?
A. An Ideal Type
B. Comparative Methods

Chapter 4: Bermuda
A. Bridging the Atlantic
B. (Re)Insurance and "Captives"

Chapter 5: Dubai
A. The Cross-Roads of Europe, Africa, and Asia
B. Islamic Finance

Chapter 6: Singapore
A. East Meets West
B. Wealth Management

Chapter 7: Hong Kong
A. The Gateway to China
B. Mainland Finance

Chapter 8: Switzerland
A. At the Heart of Europe
B. Cross-Border Banking

Chapter 9: Delaware
A. Mediating Financial and Political Power
B. Business Entity Registration

PART III: MDSJs AND OTHER FINANCIAL CENTERS

Chapter 10: Failed Small Jurisdictions and Successful Large Jurisdictions
A. Revisiting the Ideal Type
B. Failed Small Jurisdictions
C. Successful Large Jurisdictions

Chapter 11: Conclusions

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Christopher Bruner's Re-Imagining Offshore Finance: Market-Dominant Small Jurisdictions in a Globalizing Financial World is a significant contribution to the literature that should become required reading for both consumers and producers of knowledge concerning the regulation of global financial transactions.... Bruner's work provides a compelling account challenging the all-too-popular scholarly view that conceptualizes small offshore jurisdictions as parasitic entities that subsist largely at the expense of eroding the tax base of developed nations." — William J. Moon, Michigan Law Review

"Christopher Bruner's important and timely book convincingly argues that we need to take seriously a handful of small jurisdictions that, for better and worse, have managed to compete for ever-increasing shares of the market for cross-border finance." — Erin O'Hara O'Connor, Dean and McKenzie Professor of Law, Florida State University College of Law

"Are tax havens good or bad? Professor Bruner brings a fresh new perspective to this tantalizingly simple question in [this book]. By engaging an impressively broad scope of literatures and breaking through old, unhelpful labels, Bruner is able to identify fascinating new themes in offshore tax and financial competition. In bringing to light the concept of 'market-dominant small jurisdictions,' Bruner helps move the intellectual debate forward in a truly novel and important way." — Adam Rosenzweig, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, Washington University School of Law

"Re-Imagining Offshore Finance is an excellent read for anyone with an interest in international finance. It provides a thorough conceptual framework for the rise of MDSJs. Bruner's clear language and thorough analyses make a complicated theoretical analysis easy to understand ...." — Zachary S. Freeman, NYU Journal of International Law and Politics

From the Publisher