The Specter of Sisyphus: Re-Making International Financial Regulation After the Global Financial Crisis

Abstract

The global financial crisis is forcing a thorough re-evaluation of the international regulatory architecture. The crisis has shown not only the cracks in regulatory oversight, but also a market operation that had long outgrown and outwitted its overseers. This Article has argued that the international financial market may be seen as having its own distinct personality, the recent expansion bringing with it a unique set of regulatory risks. Accordingly, just as with domestic regulatory systems, the regulation of the international financial marketplace ought to be rooted in the legal and economic rationales that have been advanced in support of financial markets regulation generally, in order that reform proceed thoughtfully, rather than on an ad hoc and knee-jerk basis. This Article contemplates a re-organization of the current plethora of standard-setting and oversight bodies that have provided little substantial protection in the face of the crisis. In sum, it puts forward a case for a more consolidated framework for standard setting and supervision that better matches the shape that the market has assumed, and that further works to ensure a greater focus on catching and managing the dangers of cross-border systemic risk.