ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL? - Abstract for Coming Essay on Securities Law drawn from Hamlyn Lectures delivered by Sir Roy Goode QC

Over the course of the day, I have been reading Sir Roy Goode's Hamlyn Lectures on the definition and scope of modern English commercial law. Sir Roy's lectures really cover the terrain of modern proprietary and equitable remedies and demonstrate the sheer diversity of contemporary commercial jurisprudence. _____ In a coming essay, I hope to summarise Sir Roy's claim regarding the underdevelopment of modern English securities legislation (remember the lectures were delivered in the 1990's) and the prospect of a uniform commercial rule and/or supporting standards therefor underpinning global securities and banking transactions. In the process, I will refer to Sir Roy's conceptual approach to judicial law-making in the securities area as well as to the proliferation in comparative jurisprudence. _____ Personally, I found the Third Lecture in this series most instructive regarding, as it does, the somewhat turgid corpus of English property and equity case-law in respect to secured transactions. Thus, Sir Roy takes serious umbrage with the equitable floating charge, judicial dicta regarding charge-backs in the bank-customer relationship and the nebulous contours of chattel mortgages, sub-mortgages and sub-trusts. A fortiori, Sir Roy points to what he believes is an unappreciated volume of potential litigation with respect to custodial services. In this regard, the author focusses on global notes and the legal difficulties involving transfer of bearer securities to a depositary institution. Having dealt briefly myself with custodians and private wealth bankers, I can now understand the stress they must be under in attempting to fulfill clients' wishes pro forma as well as in substance! _____ In turn, Sir Roy Goode's comments supply wonderful form and substance to the mind deriving, in this instance, from an eminent legal scholar and person of distinction. _____ As Sir Roy indicates, this lecture series ought to be of great interest to members of the financial services industry given the fall-out of the GFC. Though written prior to that threatened collapse in global capital markets and credit services, Sir Roy's lectures explicitly address the concept of systemic risk and the necessity for predictability in financial markets and secured transactions. There is nothing "academic" about the question any longer! Therefore, here is the link to Sir Roy Goode's Hamlyn Lectures: http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/schoolofhumanitiesandsocialsciences/law/pdfs/Commercial_law_in_the_next_Millennium.pdf