Finance and law: Call for papers

National Seminar on Financial Law & Policy: An Inter-disciplinary Approach (December 1, 2012) Organised by National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi in collaboration with National Law University, Delhi

The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), New Delhi invites papers for a national-level seminar titled "Financial Law & Policy: An Inter-disciplinary Approach" to be held at the National Law University, Delhi (NLU Delhi) on December 1, 2012.

Background

The financial sector in India is currently governed by more than sixty legislations along with a plethora of rules and regulations. This has led to a lot of ambiguity in the legal framework applicable for doing business in the country. The problem gets compounded by the fact that many of these legislations were enacted more than sixty years ago, with objectives and purposes that are largely not in sync with the realities of the present day globalised competitive world.

Realising the need to address these issues and for formulating a legal framework geared up to facilitate growth of the financial sector in the future, the Government of India set up the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) on March 2011 under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd.) B.N. Srikrishna. The mandate of FSLRC involves overhauling these existing legislations and laying down a policy and legislative landscape geared towards creating a more coherent and dynamic financial environment. This exercise will also involve identifying regulatory gaps and overlaps seen in the existing system. In this regard FSLRC is focusing towards of rewriting and harmonizing the existing financial sector laws in the country, to bring them in tune with the requirements of a modern financial system.

In an evolving financial world, FSLRC intends that the new legislations will cater to the requirements of a large and fast growing economy. This is indeed a unique challenge not only because it is the first time in the history of independent India that such a large scale organised legislative reform initiative is being undertaken but also since the work involves absolute cutting edge inter-disciplinary research involving law, economics and finance.

For fulfilling its mandate, FSLRC has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with NIPFP whereby NIPFP is engaged in providing research and technical support services to FSLRC; managing the process of conducting the core legal, public policy, economic research for the various working groups established by FSLRC and drafting of the relevant draft legislation.

However, this ambitious reform will be meaningful only if a culture of inter-disciplinary thinking and research can be encouraged in Indian academia. In this context the NIPFP is organising a national level seminar on "Financial Law & Policy: An Inter-disciplinary Approach" at NLU Delhi, on December 1, 2012.

Topics

To engage with a wider audience in a constructive debate over the various issues of contemporary relevance raised in FSLRC's Terms of Reference (available at http://finmin.nic.in/fslrc/fslrc_index.asp), the broad issues from which the authors may choose are:

1. Appropriate means of oversight over financial regulators and their autonomy from the government;
2. Consumer protection as an aspect of financial regulations;
3. Role of the Central Bank in financial market regulation and supervision
4. Resolution of financial firms;
5. Principle-based or ruled-based legislation: what will work in India?
6. Unified regulator or sectoral regulator: which will work in Indi?
7. Financial Regulation and competition policy
8. Emergency powers in systemic risk situation
9. Legal process in financial regulation

Procedure

The author(s) has to submit the completed, original and unpublished paper with the Seminar Co-ordination Committee by November 1, 2012 (23.59 hrs). The Seminar Co-ordination Committee will be responsible for evaluation and selection of the top 5 papers. The authors of the 5 selected papers will be invited to NLU, Delhi to present their papers before an elite panel composing of legal practioners and members of FSLRC.

Word Limit: The paper must not exceed 5000 words (excluding footnotes or endnotes).

Format: The paper must be in Times New Roman font, character size 12 and with 1.5 spacing. Footnotes or endnotes must be in Times New Roman font, character size 10 and with single spacing. No specific style of footnotes/endnotes is required. However, the footnotes/endnotes must be written in a uniform style and provide necessary information.

Submission Procedure: The Paper must be mailed to ankur.saxena@nipfp.org.in in soft copy (pdf format) by November 1, 2012 (23.59 hrs) along with:

• Duly filled-in attached registration form (soft copy)
• Presentation in .ppt/.pdf format that the author seeks to use in the course of the presentation (optional)

Please note that the subject of the mail should be 'Paper submission'.

Eligibility: Papers may be contributed by any person (academicians, researchers, practitioners, students etc.) interested in contemporary financial regulations.

Co-authorship: Papers may be works of joint authorship.

Publication of selected papers: The 5 selected papers will be published on the NIPFP website with appropriate disclaimer.

Composition of the Seminar Co-ordination Committee

The Co-ordination Committee Comprises of:

Chairman:

• Mr. Dhirendra Swarup, Member Convenor, FSLRC

Moderator:

• Prof. Ajay Shah, Professor, NIPFP

Evaluators:

• Mr. Rajshekhar Rao, Advocate, Supreme Court of India
• Mr. Somasekhar Sundaresan, Partner, J. Sagar Associates
• Mr. Risham Garg, Assistant Professor of Law, NLU Delhi

Contact Person:

Mr. Ankur N. Saxena, Legal Consultant, NIPFP, email id: ankur.saxena@nipfp.org.in

Other Relevant Information

Crucial Dates

• The last date for submission of the completed paper: November 1, 2012 (23.59 hrs)
• Intimation of shortlisted papers: November 15, 2012
• The date of seminar: 1 December, 2012

Expenses:

The authors of the selected papers will be provided boarding and lodging facilities at NLU Delhi.

Venue: National Law University, Delhi Sector 14, Dwarka, New Delhi- 110078

REGISTRATION FORM

National Seminar on Financial Law & Policy: An Inter-disciplinary Approach

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