About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 J. Comp. Corp. L. & Sec. Reg. 39 (1978)
The U.S. Securities Laws--Banking Law of the World? (A Reply to Messrs. Loomis and Grant)

handle is hein.journals/upjiel1 and id is 45 raw text is: Journal of comparative corporate law and securities regulation 1 (1978) 39-48 0 North-Holland Publishing Company THE U.S. SECURITIES LAWS - BANKING LAW OF THE WORLD? (A REPLY TO MESSRS. LOOMIS AND GRANT) PETER WIDMER * As a Swiss lawyer, my attitude toward securities laws generally is entirely differ- ent from that of a U.S. securities lawyer. Accordingly, I will try to evaluate the positions stated in the article by Messrs. Loomis and Grant 1 from the point of view of a non-U.S. lawyer whose clients are affected by the extraterritorial application of the U.S. securities laws by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. courts. My comments should help U.S. lawyers understand better the points of view of those non-U.S. financial institutions which are strongly opposed to the SEC's actions in the international field. I am convinced that the serious problems posed by the existence of the U.S. securities laws should be solved on the basis of mutual respect and understanding and not on the basis of a mere assertion of power. I. The U.S. securities laws viewed from abroad The difficult problems created by the extraterritorial application of the U.S. securities laws cannot be sufficiently understood unless one realizes the distinctly U.S. character of these laws. For most non-U.S. persons, in particular for Europe- ans, the U.S. securities laws constitute an incomprehensible bulk of infinitely com- plicaed rules which are totally strange to them. Many look at them simply as one of the bases for that great U.S. pastime of suing one another. Those persons who know better may recognize the goals which the U.S. legis- lator and the SEC want to achieve through the U.S. securities laws and their admin- istration, but even those better-informed persons do not believe in the means by which these goals are sought to be achieved by the SEC. To Europeans, the basic burden of judging an investment is on the investor; Europeans do not believe that full disclosure greatly helps him in making his deci- sion. They rather place emphasis on the functioning of competition in the capital markets, on professional control by banks and investment adivsers and, finally, on * Mr Widmer is a member of the Zurich Bar.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most