Professor Niamh Moloney

This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time), MSc in Regulation and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course has a limited number of places and demand is typically high. This may mean that you’re not able to get a place on this course.

The course examines the EU's regulation of the capital markets. It considers the harmonised regulatory regime which applies to capital market actors across the Member States and which supports the integrated market. The topics which may be covered include: the rationale for integration and the role of law and the evolution of the integration project, including the impact of the financial crisis, Capital Market Union, and the UK’s withdrawal from the EU; the deregulation, liberalisation, harmonisation, and re-regulation mechanisms used to integrate and regulate the EU market; market access and the passport for investment services; the liberalisation of order execution and the regulation of trading markets; retail investor protection; the prospectus and disclosure regime; the regulation of gatekeepers;  and the institutional structure supporting regulation and supervision, including the role of the European Securities and Markets Authority. Course coverage may vary slightly from year to year.

This course has 20 hours of teaching content in Michaelmas Term. This course includes a Reading Week in Week 6 of Michaelmas Term.

A mandatory in-class formative assessment (in the form of a timed exam question) will be held in Week 6.

Reading lists will be provided in advance for each seminar and will include chapters from books, articles, and relevant legislative and policy materials. Sample texts include: Moloney, EU Securities and Financial Markets Regulation, 3rd edition (2014) and Veil (ed), European Capital Markets Law, 3rd edition (2022).

Preliminary reading

Moloney, EU Securities and Financial Markets Regulation (2014), chapter 1

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the summer exam period.