25 March, 2026
Reconciling Shareholder Primacy and the Interests of People and Planet
By Eilís Ferran and Pedro Shilling de Carvalho The starting premise of this article is that general company law duties of directors and sustainability-related regulatory requirements can play a complementary role in accelerating the closer convergence between corporate actions and the interests of people and planet. The article considers how regulatory initiatives that work […]
18 March, 2026
Global South Innovation in Group Law: Brazil’s Joint and Several Liability for Labor Obligations
By: Mariana Pargendler and Olívia Pasqualeto Limited liability is one of corporate law’s most celebrated features. Yet its use to shield shareholders and parent companies from claims by vulnerable creditors—especially workers—has long raised concerns of both efficiency and fairness. These concerns are particularly acute in corporate groups, where multinational enterprises can fragment their activities […]
4 March, 2026
Sustainable bonds: Trends and Policy Recommendations
By: Caio de Oliveira and Valentina Cociancich The recently published Sustainable Bonds: Trends and Policy Recommendations OECD report explores key issues and trends in sustainable bond markets, including green bonds and sustainability-linked bonds. It aims to inform policy discussions on investors’ goals when acquiring sustainable bonds, how these instruments may influence corporate and official […]
26 February, 2026
The Hidden Legal Constraints to Startup and VC Growth
Law and finance scholars have long found corporate law largely irrelevant for startups and venture capital (VC) because founders and investors often “contract around” mandatory rules. Yet this finding conflicts with persistent empirical patterns. Most VC-backed startups in the United States incorporate in Delaware – not for tax or hiring reasons, but to be governed […]
4 February, 2026
The Regulatory Challenges Raised by the Evolution from Open Banking to Banking-as-a-Service
In May 2024, a company in California suddenly made headlines across the financial press. Synapse Financial Technologies, once hailed as a pioneer in the next wave of financial innovation, filed for bankruptcy. The company had promised to revolutionize banking by providing ‘Banking-as-a-Service’ (BaaS): an invisible layer of technology that allowed apps to plug directly into the […]
28 January, 2026
Strengthening the International Competitiveness of Capital Markets: Global Insights and Local Strategies
Global capital markets are undergoing profound transformation. Over the past decade, there has been a marked decline in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in most advanced economies, including those with highly developed capital markets such as the United Kingdom and the United States. Interestingly, during the same period, countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and particularly China […]
31 March, 2025
Sustainability and Corporate Governance in Latin America
Despite the shareholder-oriented corporate governance model that, with a few exceptions, prevails in Latin America, the regulatory framework for businesses in most Latin American countries includes many stakeholder-oriented provisions. Many legal and finance scholars have rightly emphasized that Milton Friedman’s statement about the purpose of a corporation has been widely misinterpreted. As Luigi Zingales mentioned in an […]
25 February, 2022
Implementing blockchain technology for corporate record-keeping in Ecuador
Following the recommendations suggested by the Ibero-American Institute for Law and Finance, Ecuador implemented the most ambitious corporate law reforms observed in Latin America in the past decades. The Ecuadorian Parliament enacted the Corporate Modernization Act, intended to modernize its regulatory framework in several ways. Among other innovative reforms, the new legislation allows the use […]
13 January, 2021
Regulación de las operaciones entre partes relacionadas en el Derecho Societario del Ecuador
By Paúl Noboa Velasco El Derecho Societario, entre otras funciones, está llamado a mitigar los conflictos existentes entre los diversos grupos de interés que confluyen en una compañía, centro de imputación diferenciado dotado de personalidad jurídica independiente de sus miembros. En reiteradas ocasiones, las compañías actúan como un elemento aglutinador de varias posiciones que, […]
30 December, 2020
Ecuador incorpora varias reformas societarias sugeridas por el Instituto Iberoamericano de Derecho y Finanzas
Nos complace anunciar que la Asamblea Nacional de la República del Ecuador ha aprobado recientemente una ambiciosa reforma de la normativa de sociedades que, entre otros aspectos, recoge varias de las recomendaciones sugeridas en la propuesta de reforma societaria para Ecuador elaborada por un grupo de trabajo del Instituto Iberoamericano de Derecho y Finanzas liderado […]