The International Law of Financial Crisis: Spillovers, Subsidiarity, Fragmentation, and Cooperation

Abstract

This article develops an analytical template for examining the future of international financial crisis avoidance and management, focusing on certain areas of prudential financial regulation. This template examines questions of national regulatory policy reform, reasons for international cooperation, and problems of cross-functional fragmentation. In order for each state to reduce risk through regulatory reform, states must work together to avoid cross-border harms that are not fully taken into account in national decision-making, and to avoid detrimental regulatory competition. They must work together to make rules, but they must recognize that our vision of the future is limited, and so they must establish institutions that will allow them to revise rules, and institutions, as necessitated by unfolding change.

Keywords: financial regulation, financial crisis, bank regulation, securities regulation, international law, regulatory competition, regulatory jurisdiction

JEL Classification: E53, F30, F36, G18, K22, K23, K33, L51