Stock Exchange Law: Concept, History, Challenges

Abstract:     
Stock exchange law is a field that is highly influenced by economic, social, and political factors. This makes research on the concept and the history of stock exchange law an interdisciplinary challenge: researchers have to link studies of lawyers and legal historians with the works of other branches of the social sciences, such as economic and social history, political economy, and contemporary economics. The number of sources that require investigation and the difficulties of their interdisciplinary analysis may explain why the fundamentals of stock exchange law and, more generally, of capital markets or securities law have received less attention so far than their economic, social, political, and legal weight would call for.

This article aims to call attention to this research gap and to identify, in a brief overview, the most important factors and events that might form the core of a comprehensive account. Part A introduces the reader to the term ‘bourse,’ as stock exchanges are referred to in French, German, and many other languages, and the rules that constitute ‘stock exchange law.’ Part B outlines the four stages in the history of stock exchange law: the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, Absolutism and Mercantilism, Industrialization, and National legislation and European harmonization. Part C highlights four contemporary challenges that policy makers all over the world currently have to deal with: profit orientation, internationalization, fragmentation, and automation. Part D concludes with thoughts on the future of stock exchange law.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 43

Keywords: stock exchange, bourse, stock exchange law, securities law, capital market law, economic history, demutualization, internationalization, fragmentation, automation

JEL Classification: D4, F3, G1, G2, G3, G15, G18, G28, G32, G38, K22, L1, L3, N2, N20, N21, N22, N23, N24

working papers series