Do Market Abuse Rules Violate Human Rights? The Grande Stevens v. Italy Case

Abstract

The 2014 decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case “Grande Stevens and Others v. Italy” raises numerous complex issues concerning the regulation of market abuses in Italy, Europe, and also in other systems. The broad questions that the Court of Strasburg addresses, specifically concerning the nature of administrative sanctions and civil penalties, due process in administrative sanctioning procedures, and double jeopardy issues when both criminal and civil sanctions can be inflicted, not only are extremely relevant practically for the current and future regulation of insider trading and market manipulation, but also open a more theoretical discussion on the relationships between the only apparently unrelated fields of human rights and enforcement in financial markets. This Article offers an analysis of the decision, also in the light of future developments due to the recent reform of European law on market abuse, and compares this landmark European decision with corresponding U.S. case law.

Keywords: market abuse, insider trading, market manipulations, European Convention on Human Rights, due process, double jeopardy

JEL Classification: K22