Dr Elizabeth Howell

This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time) 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 legal issues arising out of the operation of the capital markets as intermediaries between investors and issuers; it focuses on the regulation of capital-raising through the markets. The topics covered include: disclosure theory; the role of trading markets in finance-raising and their regulation; prospectus disclosure; ongoing disclosure; gatekeepers; market abuse; and the internationalisation of capital-raising and harmonisation. The course will focus primarily on English law but will consider the impact of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. Course coverage may vary slightly from year to year.

This course is delivered through weekly two-hour lectures and through fortnightly (on average) one-hour classes in Winter Term. The course includes a Reading Week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

A mock examination will be held at a time to be advised during Winter Term.

Reading lists will be provided in advance for each session. Sample texts include Ferran, Howell and Steffek, Principles of Corporate Finance Law (3rd edition, 2023 (forthcoming); and Payne and Gullifer, Corporate Finance Law, 3 ed 2020.

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