oxford law - the faculty and its members : john armour

John Armour was appointed to the Lovells Professorship in Law and Finance, in association with Oriel College on 1 July 2007, having previously been a University Senior Lecturer in Law and Fellow of Trinity Hall at Cambridge University. He studied law (MA, BCL) at the University of Oxford before completing his LLM at Yale Law School and taking up his first post at the University of Nottingham. He has held visiting posts at various institutions including Pennsylvania Law School, the University of Bologna, and Columbia Law School.

He has published widely in the fields of company law, corporate finance, and corporate insolvency. His main research interest lies in the integration of legal and economic analysis, with particular emphasis on the impact on the real economy of changes in the law governing insolvency and company law. He has been involved in policy related projects commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry, the Financial Services Authority, and the Insolvency Service.

Subject groups : Law and Finance : Corporate Insolvency Law : Corporate Finance : Comparative and European Corporate Law : Company Law

J Armour and P Lele, 'Law, Finance and Politics: The Case of India' (2009) 43 Law and Society Review 491-526

Abstract: The process of liberalisation of India's economy since 1991 has brought with it considerable development both of its financial markets and the legal institutions which support these. An influential body of recent economic work asserts that a country's 'legal origin'-as a civilian or common law jurisdiction-plays an important part in determining the development of its investor protection regulations, and consequently its financial development. An alternative theory claims that the determinants of investor protection are political, rather than legal. We use the case of India to test these theories. We find little support for the idea that India's legal heritage as a common law country has been influential in speeding the path of regulatory reforms and financial development. There is a complementarity between (i) India's relative success in services and software, (ii) the relative strength of its financial markets for outside equity, as opposed to outside debt, and (iii) the relative success of stock market regulation, as opposed to reforms of creditor rights. We conclude that political explanations have more traction in explaining the case of India than do theories based on 'legal origins'.

ISBN: 0023-9216

J Armour, R Kraakman, P Davies, L Enriques, H Hansmann, G Hertig and K Hopt, H Kanda, E Rock, The Anatomy of Corporate Law (Oxford University Press 2009)

DOI: 10.1111/j.1740-1461.2009.01146.x

Abstract: Using a panel data set covering a range of developed and developing countries, we show that common-law systems were more protective of shareholder interests than civil-law ones in the period 1995–2005. However, civilian systems were catching up, suggesting that legal origin was not much of an obstacle to formal convergence in shareholder protection law. We find no evidence of a positive impact of these legal changes on stock market development. Possible explanations are that laws have been overly protective of shareholders and that transplanted laws have not worked well in contexts for which they were not suited.

ISBN: 1740-1453

J Armour and J. Payne (eds), Rationality in Company Law (Hart Publishing 2009)

URL: http://www.hartpub.co.uk/books/details.asp?isbn=9781841138060

Abstract: This collection of essays is a festschrift to honour Professor Dan Prentice who retired in 2008 from the Allen & Overy Professorship of Company Law in the University of Oxford. Dan Prentice has been deeply involved in corporate law from all perspectives: as a scholar, teacher, law reformer and practising member of Erskine Chambers. His interests have covered the full range of corporate law, finance and insolvency. The occasion of his retirement from his Professorship has afforded a number of leading corporate law experts from around the world, many of whom are his former students and colleagues, an opportunity to address some of the most important issues in corporate law today, in his honour. Corporate law has always been a fast-moving area, but the present pace of change seems quicker than ever. The Companies Act 2006, by some way the longest piece of legislation ever passed by the UK Parliament, is reshaping the landscape of domestic company law. At the same time, legislative and judicial developments at the European level in corporate and securities law are of unprecedented importance for corporate lawyers based in the UK. This outstanding series of papers addresses a number of the most important issues currently facing the subject, including the impact of the new Companies Act on directors' duties, shareholder litigation and capital maintenance; aspects of insolvency and banking regulation, the Capital Requirements Directive, and a new Convention on Intermediated securities. It will be essential reading for all those interested in the field.

URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1133542

Abstract: Shares in publicly-quoted UK companies are, similarly to those in their US counterparts, dispersed amongst many holders. The central problem of corporate governance for UK listed firms is therefore rendering managers accountable to shareholders. This paper investigates the way in which the mechanisms used to control these managerial agency problems are enforced. It provides a roadmap of the enforcement strategies employed, and a first approximation of their empirical significance. The results suggest three stylised facts about the UK corporate governance system. First, shareholder lawsuits are conspicuous by their absence. Formal private enforcement plays little or no role in controlling managers. Secondly, and contrary to leading accounts in the economic literature, it is public, rather than private, enforcement which dominates in relation to listed companies. However, the lion's share of the interventions by the relevant agencies - the Takeover Panel, the Financial Reporting Review Panel, and the Financial Services Authority - is of an informal character, not resulting in any legal action. Suasion, rather than sanction, is the order of the day. Thirdly, a simple divide between public and private enforcement fails fully to take account of the role played by institutional investors in the UK, who have engaged systematically in informal private enforcement activity. Strong informal private enforcement has historically therefore been the flipside, in the UK, of weak formal private enforcement.

DOI: doi:10.1093/aler/ahn008

Abstract: Recent initiatives in a number of countries have sought to promote entrepreneurship through relaxing the legal consequences of personal bankruptcy. Whilst there is an intuitive link, relatively little attention has been paid to the question empirically, particularly in the international context. We investigate the relationship between bankruptcy laws and entrepreneurship using data on self-employment over 16 years (1990–2005) and fifteen countries in Europe and North America. We compile new indices reflecting how "forgiving" personal bankruptcy laws are. These measures vary over time and across the countries studied. We show that bankruptcy law has a statistically and economically significant effect on self-employment rates when controlling for GDP growth, MSCI stock returns, and a variety of other legal and economic factors.

ISBN: 1465-7252

URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1118030

Abstract: This review paper is a contribution to a symposium on the 'Future of Secured Credit in Europe'. Its theme is the way in which empirical research has shed light on earlier theoretical literature. These findings tend to suggest that the legal institution of secured credit is, on the whole, socially beneficial, and that such benefits are likely to outweigh any associated social costs. Having made this general claim, the paper then turns to consider the effects of four particular dimensions across which systems of secured credit may differ, and which may therefore be of interest to European law-makers. These are: (i) the scope of permissible collateral; (ii) the efficacy of enforcement; (iii) the priority treatment of secured creditors; and (iv) the mechanisms employed to assist third parties in discovering that security has been granted. In each case, consideration is paid first to the theoretical position, and then empirical findings. It is argued that perhaps the most difficult of these issues for European law-makers concerns the appropriate design of publicity mechanisms for third parties.

URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1151785#

Abstract: With effect from September 15, 2003, the Enterprise Act made significant changes to the governance of corporate rescue procedures in the United Kingdom which involved a shift away from a "concentrated creditor" model of governance towards a "dispersed creditor" model of governance which vests greater control rights in unsecured creditors collectively. These changes were motivated by fairness and efficiency concerns, notably the concern that the UK's administrative receivership procedure was not conducive to rescue outcomes and operated to the detriment of unsecured creditors. This article discusses the Enterprise Act reforms in the context of wider theoretical debates about the desirability (or otherwise) of secured creditor control of corporate rescue procedures. It then presents in summary form the findings of an empirical study carried out by the authors that sought to evaluate the impact of the Act by comparing the gross realizations, costs and net returns to creditors in a sample of 284 corporate insolvencies commenced before and after the law changed. Whilst we find that gross realizations have increased under the streamlined administration procedure, we also find that costs have increased. These findings imply that secured creditor control of the insolvency procedure (as in receivership) may be no worse for unsecured creditors than control by dispersed unsecured creditors (as in administrations) at least as regards returns.

J Armour, 'Codification and UK Company Law' in Association du Bicentenaire du Code du Commerce (ed), Bicentenaire du Code de Commerce 1807-2007: Les Actes des Colloques (Dalloz 2008)

URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1276397

Abstract: Private equity, characterized by firms operating as privately held partnerships organizing the acquisition and "taking private" of public companies, has recently dominated the business news due to deals unprecedented in number and size. If this buyout boom continues unabated, the 1989 prediction by economist Michael Jensen of The Eclipse of the Public Corporation could be proved accurate. This article argues matters will work out much differently, with the current version of private equity being eclipsed. One possibility is that a set of market and legal conditions highly congenial to "public-to-private" transactions could be disrupted. A "credit crunch" commencing in the summer of 2007 stands out as the most immediate threat. The article draws on history to put matters into context, discussing how the spectacular rise of conglomerates in the 1960s was reversed in subsequent decades and how the 1980s buyout boom led by leveraged buyout associations - the private equity firms of the day - collapsed. If legal and market conditions remain favorable for private equity, its eclipse is likely to occur in a different way. Privacy has been a hallmark of private equity, with industry leaders operating as secretive partnerships that negotiate buyouts behind closed doors and restructure portfolio companies outside the public gaze. However, the private equity boom created momentum among market leaders to carry out public offerings and diversify their operations. If this trend proves sustainable, then even if the taking private of publicly quoted companies remains a mainstream pursuit, the exercise will be carried out in the main by broadly based financial groups under the umbrella of public markets.

URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=928928

Abstract: Hostile takeovers are commonly thought to play a key role in rendering managers accountable to dispersed shareholders in the "Anglo-American” system of corporate governance. Yet surprisingly little attention has been paid to the very significant differences in takeover regulation between the two most prominent jurisdictions. In the United Kingdom, defensive tactics by target managers are prohibited, whereas Delaware law gives U.S. managers a good deal of room to maneuver. Existing accounts of this difference focus on alleged pathologies in competitive federalism in the United States. In contrast, we focus on the “supply-side” of rule production by examining the evolution of the two regimes from a public choice perspective. We suggest that the content of the rules has been crucially influenced by differences in the mode of regulation. In the United Kingdom, self-regulation of takeovers has led to a regime largely driven by the interests of institutional investors, whereas the dynamics of judicial law-making in the United States have benefited managers by making it relatively difficult for shareholders to influence the rules. Moreover, it was never possible for Wall Street to “privatize” takeovers in the same way as the City of London, because U.S. federal regulation in the 1930s both pre-empted selfregulation and restricted the ability of institutional investors to coordinate.

ISBN: 0016-8092

DOI: doi:10.1093/ojls/gqm009

Abstract: Recent work in both the theory of the firm and of corporate law has called into question the appropriateness of analysing corporate law as ‘merely’ a set of standard form contracts. This article develops these ideas by focusing on property law's role in underpinning corporate enterprise. Rights to control assets are a significant mechanism of governance in the firm. However, their use in this way predicates some arrangement for stipulating which parties will have control under which circumstances. It is argued that ‘property rules’—a category whose scope is determined functionally—protect the entitlements of parties to such sharing arrangements against each other's opportunistic attempts to grant conflicting entitlements to third parties. At the same time, the legal system uses a range of strategies to minimize the costs such protection imposes on third parties. The choice of strategy significantly affects co-owners’ freedom to customize their control-sharing arrangements. This theory is applied to give an account of the ‘proprietary foundations’ of corporate law, which has significant implications for the way in which the subject's functions are understood and evaluated.

ISBN: 0143-6503

URL: http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Law/ConflictofLaws/?view=usa&ci=9780199227945

J Armour and J.A. McCahery (eds), After Enron: Reforming Corporate Governance and Capital Markets in Europe and the US (Hart Publishing 2006)

URL: http://www.amazon.co.uk/After-Enron-Modernising-Securities-Regulation/dp/1841135313

Abstract: At the end of the twentieth century, it was thought by many that the Anglo-American system of corporate governance was performing effectively. Some observers claimed to see an international trend towards convergence around this model, in which firms raise finance on capital markets from dispersed investors, and corporate governance seeks to keep managers accountable to shareholders. There can be no denying that the recent corporate governance crisis in the US - Enron and related scandals - has caused many to question their faith in this view. This collection of essays provide a comprehensive attempt to answer the following questions: firstly, what went wrong - when and why do markets misprice the value of firms, and what was wrong with the incentives set by Enron? Secondly, what has been done in response, and how well will it work - including essays on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US, UK company law reform and European company law and auditor liability reform, along with a consideration of corporate governance reforms in historical perspective. Three approaches emerge. The first two share the premise that the system is fundamentally sound, but part ways over whether a regulatory response is required. The first view argues that the events of the 'fall' have indicated a need for greater regulation to curb the excesses of the market. The second view suggests that Enron was merely an aberration, which 'self-corrected' anyway, and consequently the regulatory response has been unnecessarily restrictive. The third view, in contrast, argues that the various scandals demonstrate fundamental weaknesses in the Anglo-American system itself, which cannot hope to be repaired by the sort of reforms that have taken place. It is for the reader, and ultimately history, to decide which view is correct.

ISBN: 978-1-84113-531-1

DOI: doi:10.1093/oep/gpl007

Abstract: Must policymakers seeking to replicate the success of Silicon Valley's venture capital market first copy other US institutions, such as deep and liquid stock markets? Or can legislative reforms alone make a significant difference? In this paper, we compare the economic and legal determinants of venture capital investment, fundraising, and exits. We introduce a cross-sectional and time series empirical analysis across 15 countries and 14 years of data spanning an entire business cycle. We show that liberal bankruptcy laws stimulate entrepreneurial demand for venture capital; that government programmes more often hinder than help the development of private equity, and that the legal environment matters as much as the strength of stock markets. Our results imply generalizable lessons for legal reform.

ISBN: 00307653

URL: http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Law/BankruptcyInsolvency/~~/dmlldz11c2EmY2k9OTc4MDE5OTI5OTkzNQ==

ISBN: 0199299935

J Armour and A. J. Walters, 'Funding Liquidation: a Functional View' (2006) 122 Law Quaterly Review 303 - 334

DOI: doi:10.1017/S156675290600005X

Abstract: This paper reviews the case for and against mandatory legal capital rules. It is argued that legal capital is no longer an appropriate means of safeguarding creditors' interests. This is most clearly the case as regards mandatory rules. Moreover, it is suggested that even an ‘opt in’ (or default) legal capital regime is unlikely to be a useful mechanism. However, the advent of regulatory arbitrage in European corporate law will provide a way of gathering information regarding investors' preferences in relation to such rules. Those creditor protection rules that do not further the interests of adjusting creditors will become subject to competitive pressures. Legislatures will be faced with the task of designing mandatory rules to deal with the issues raised by ‘non-adjusting’ creditors in a proportionate and effective manner, consistent with the Gebhard formula.

ISBN: 1566-7529

URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=860444

Abstract: This paper makes a case for the future development of European corporate law through regulatory competition rather than EC legislation. It is for the first time becoming legally possible for firms within the EU to select the national company law that they wish to govern their activities. A significant number of firms can be expected to exercise this freedom, and national legislatures can be expected to respond by seeking to make their company laws more attractive to firms. Whilst the UK is likely to be the single most successful jurisdiction in attracting firms, the presence of different models of corporate governance within Europe make it quite possible that competition will result in specialisation rather than convergence, and that no Member State will come to dominate as Delaware has done in the US. Procedural safeguards in the legal framework will direct the selection of laws which increase social welfare, as opposed simply to the welfare of those making the choice. Given that European legislators cannot be sure of the 'optimal' model for company law, the future of European company law-making would better be left with Member States than take the form of harmonized legislation.

ISBN: 9780199285396

URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=567306

Abstract: English corporate insolvency law has been reshaped by the Enterprise Act 2002. The Act was intended to 'to facilitate company rescue and to produce better returns for creditors as a whole'. Administrative receivership, which placed control of insolvency proceedings in the hands of banks, is for most purposes being abolished. It is being replaced by a 'streamlined' administration procedure. Whilst it will still be possible for banks to control the appointment process, the administrator once in office owes duties to all creditors and must act in accordance with a statutory hierarchy of objectives. In this article, we seek to describe, and to evaluate, this new world of corporate rescue.

ISBN: 0306-2945

DOI: 10.1017/S1566752904000874

Abstract: Scholars working in the ‘law and finance’ field have investigated empirically the links between various types of law and the incidence of venture capital finance. However, no study to date has systematically investigated the relationship between insolvency law – both personal and corporate – and venture capital finance. This paper argues that a nation’s personal insolvency law may have an important impact on the demand for venture capital finance, with more severe treatment of insolvents tending to reduce demand. This hypothesis is subjected to a preliminary test by comparing data on venture capital investment activity with an index of ‘severity’ of insolvency laws, and is not falsified. This finding will be of interest to policymakers, as a number of recent national and EU initiatives have sought explicitly to encourage innovative firms and venture capital finance.

ISBN: 1566-7529

DOI: 10.1111/1467-8543.00286

Abstract: Core institutions of UK corporate governance, in particular those relating to takeovers, board structure and directors' duties, are strongly orientated towards a norm of shareholder primacy. Beyond the core, in particular at the inter-section of insolvency and employment law, stakeholder interests are better represented, thanks largely to European Community influence. Moreover, institutional shareholders are redirecting their investment strategies away from a focus on short-term returns, in such a way as to favour stakeholder-inclusive practices. We therefore suggest that the UK system is currently in a state of flux and that the debate over shareholder primacy has not been concluded.

ISBN: 0 19 928703 1

DOI: doi:10.1016/S0144-8188(02)00114-X

Abstract: The statutory protection provided by European Community law to employees during transfers of undertakings and other restructurings has been criticised on the grounds that it undermines insolvency procedures and interferes with the ‘rescue’ process. We present an analysis which suggests that granting employees rights of this kind may be an efficient means of recognising their firm-specific human capital. Case-study evidence is then presented to show that while in some situations employment rights may obstruct reorganisations, in others they allow employee interests to be factored into the bargaining process in such a way as to enhance the survival chances of enterprises undergoing restructuring. The law functions best when effective mechanisms of employee representation are in place and when the conditions under which employees’ acquired rights can be waived in the interests of preserving employment are clearly specified.

ISBN: 0144-8188

J Armour, Law, Finance and Innovation in McCahery, J.A. & Renneboog, L. (eds), Venture Capital Contracting and the Valuation of Hi-Tech Firms (Oxford: OUP 2003)

URL: http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199270132

Abstract: This chapter reviews evidence about the extent to which law and lawyers ‘matter’ for venture capital investment. As such, it relates both to the policy debate about financing innovative firms and more generally to the comparative finance literature that has investigated the extent to which law may be one of the determinants of differing patterns of corporate finance across various countries. The review is organised around the idea that law may ‘matter’ in a variety of ways for corporate finance. The starting point is a model of what venture capital investment involves, derived from empirical studies in the US. The venture capitalist is a financial intermediary, who raises funds from end-investors which are then used to finance small entrepreneurial firms. The contracts between the venture capitalist and the investee firms have complex terms which can be understood as responses to agency problems inherent in the financing relationship. The first way in which laws may ‘matter’ is by affecting the way in which the practice of venture capital investment is structured—most obviously, in the terms of the contracts used. Empirical studies of the contracting practices of venture capitalists show clear differences between national practices, and it is plausible that some at least of these may be driven by differences in the legal regimes. Most obviously, these might arise due to mandatory legal rules—for example, local tax laws—which distort choices of inframarginal investors in favour of a particular type of financial contract.

J Armour, 'Transactions at an Undervalue' in Armour, J. & Bennett, H.N. (eds), Vulnerable Transactions in Corporate Insolvency (Oxford: Hart Publishing 2003)

J Armour, 'Transactions Defrauding Creditors' in Armour, J. Bennett, H. N. (eds), Vulnerable Transactions in Corporate Insolvency (Oxford: Hart Publishing 2003)

J Armour, 'Avoidance of Transactions as a ‘Fraud on Creditors’ at Common Law' in Armour, J. & Bennett, H. N. (eds), Vulnerable Transactions in Corporate Insolvency (Oxford:Hart Publishing 2003)

URL: http://law.vanderbilt.edu/publications/vanderbilt-law-review/archive/volume-55-number-6-november-2002/download.aspx?id=2899

ISBN: 0042-2533

J Armour and M. J. Whincop, 'An Economic Analysis of Shared Property in Partnership and Close Corporations Law' (2001) 26 Journal of Corporation Law 101-118

URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=258615

Abstract: In recent years law and economics scholarship has expanded its frame of reference to incorporate the role of social norms in shaping the incentives of actors. This shift in perspective has yet to filter through to the literature on bankruptcy, which has to date concentrated on the role of legal rules in resolving financial distress. This paper presents qualitative findings on how financial distress is resolved amongst creditors of large UK firms. Such restructurings proceed according to an informal set of market norms known collectively as the "London Approach." The paper suggests that regulatory pressure applied by the Bank of England may have been critical in "seeding" the market norms. It also examines the prospects for the London Approach's future in light of changes in the financial environment brought about by globalisation. The paper points the way towards an incorporation into bankruptcy scholarship of the role played by social norms.

ISBN: 1473-5970

DOI: 10.1093/ojls/21.1.73

Abstract: It is a popular perception that administrative receivers and their appointors hold «too much» power in relation to troubled companies. Many who hold this view have called for the reform of insolvency law in order to redress the balance of power. This issue is timely, because insolvency law is currently under review. This article argues that although the law's formal structure is imbalanced, it can nevertheless generate savings for parties, by allowing a concentrated creditor who has invested in information-gathering about the debtor to conduct a private insolvency procedure. It is suggested that this procedure is likely to be more efficient than one conducted by a state official, and that it is likely to reduce the costs of debt finance, a matter of particular importance for small and medium-sized businesses. Empirical data are presented from 26 interviews with practitioners, which shed further light on the operation of receivership. Finally, the current law is compared with possible alternatives. It is argued that the case for wide-ranging reform is not made out.

ISBN: 1464-3820/0143-6503

DOI: 10.1111/1468-2230.00268

Abstract: This article examines the case for rules of company law which regulate the raising and maintenance of share capital by companies. The enquiry has practical relevance because the content of company law is currently under review, and the rules relating to share capital have been singled out for particular attention. The existing rules, which apply generally, are commonly rationalised as a means of protecting corporate creditors. The analysis considers whether such rules can be understood as responses to failures in the markets for corporate credit. It suggests that whilst the current rules are unlikely, on the whole, to be justified in terms of efficiency, a case may be made for a framework within which companies may 'opt in' to customised restrictions on dealings in their share capital.

ISBN: 1468-2230/0026-7961

J Armour, 'Corporate Personality and Assumption of Responsibility' (1999) Lloyds’ Maritime & Commercial Law Quarterly 246-255