The Construction and Regulation of a Single European Market in Investment Services

The aim of this study is to systematize and assess the legal techniques and rules set out by the European Community to create and regulate the internal market in investment services.

To dismantle barriers obstructing the construction of a properly integrated market in investment services, and to promote the efficient functioning of such a market, EC law relies on various and complementary legal techniques, which include: negative and positive harmonisation of Member States' laws, vertical and horizontal allocation of responsibilities-competences among Member States, and cooperation between national authorities.

In order to understand and evaluate such legal instruments, this book undertakes a systematic examination of the most important sets of EC law rules for the creation and regulation of the single market in investment services. By adopting a functional approach, the study covers all the various fields of law - administrative, commercial, contract, procedural, private international law, etc. - to which these rules belong.

The EC rules relevant to the investment services market have a variety of sources: the EC Treaty, the 2004/39/EC Markets in Financial Instrument Directive (MiFID) and its Level 2 implementing measures; the 2000/31/EC Electronic Commerce Directive, the 2002/65/EC Distance Marketing of Financial Services to Consumers Directive; the 1980 Rome Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations, the proposed Rome I Regulation; and the 44/2001 Brussels Regulation, etc. This book pays particular attention to the interplay between these different sets of rules, and to its impact on the internal market related goals.