Property Rights in Investment Securities and the Doctrine of Specificity

This book is, with some adjustments and additions, largely based on my PhD thesis on Property Rights in Investment Securities and the Doctrine of Speci?city, which I defended in London on 15 June 2007 with Professor Lars Gorton and Dr. Kern Alexander as examiners. The subject matter is the doctrine of speci?city and its non-conformity with the developments in the ?nancial markets. As this book shows, the requirement for speci?city in book-entry securities is closely linked to loss allocation. If we decided that the rights that the investor has against its intermediary shall be property rights (as opposed to claims), then, loss allocation is crucial. Should the intermediary become insolvent and there be ins- ?cient securities, the shortfall has to be distributed. Through segregation on des- nated accounts the level of protection for the investor can be increased. It can also be increased by a requirement that the intermediary should hold a suf?cient number of securities corresponding to its customers’ securities. During the course of this work I have received valuable assistance from s- eral persons, for which I am very grateful. First of all, I am indebted to Tekn. dr. Marcus Wallenbergs Stiftelse for ¨ utbildning i internationellt industriellt for ¨ etagande and For ¨ etagsjuridik Nord & Co for the ?nancial support they have provided.