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European Business Organization Law Review 13: 281-303 281
2012 T.M.C.ASSER PRESS
Colin Bamford, Principles of International Financial Law (Oxford, Oxford
University Press 2011), xvii + 364 pp., ISBN 978-0-19-958931-9 doi:10.1017/S1566752912000195
Colin Bamfords textbook follows a professional lawyers writing style where academic style is intentionally avoided. Professional lawyers identify legal problems to which they seek solutions under legislation and case law, which is in contrast with some schools of academia such as law and economics.1 The latter school has shifted the agenda of legal research from describing the state of law to the evaluation of the legal rules on the basis of economic efficiency in terms of, inter alia, Kaldor-Hicks efficiency.2 In his well-written book, Bamford, being a barrister, reflects the typical lawyer style with a major interest in law as it stands rather than the law as it should be.
Bamford seems to address his textbook to law students and legal practitioners interested in international financial law. The book aims to provide a preliminary understanding of the legal principles relevant to international financial transactions as applied by English courts. The author selects legal concepts and principles which have already been shown to be central to issues in this field and which can be predicted to arise again in different circumstances (p. 5). Following an arbitrary choice of the concepts to be treated, the book includes chapters on various issues, including money, payment, property and personal rights, intangibles as property, the legal nature of the international bond market, fiduciary duties and how they arise, fiduciary duties in financial markets, credit support in financial markets, security interests, and the construction of financial contracts.
After a short introductory chapter, Bamford treats the legal aspects of money and payment in chapters 2 and 3. In chapter 2, the author discusses some famous cases in relation to the nature of money, most importantly the Banco de Portugal v. Waterlow & Sons Ltd case. The case supports the authors view that money represents the aggregate debt obligations of the sovereign issuer owed to the holders of the money (pp. 11 and 23-26). In chapter 3, Bamford discusses payment, which he defines as
1 On the school of law and economics, see R. Posner, Economic Analysis of Law, 8th edn. (New...