Hannah Buxbaum (Indiana University Maurer School of Law): Equivalence Regimes in Transnational Regulation: From Comparability to Convergence

About the speaker:

Hannah Buxbaum is Professor of Law and the John E. Schiller Chair at Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Her research and teaching are in the areas of private international law and comparative law, with a particular emphasis on jurisdictional conflict in cross-border economic regulation. Among other roles, she is a member of the Curatorium of the Hague Academy of International Law and a titular member of the International Academy of Comparative Law.

About the topic:

Mutual recognition regimes help reduce regulatory overlaps in many areas of international business activity. They lay out the terms on which participating states will forego their own regulation of foreign transactions or entities affecting their markets, agreeing to rely instead on regulation by another participating state. These regimes work only if each state is sure that its own local interests will be adequately protected by the foreign regulatory scheme. This workshop will address a particular variant of these regimes that relies on formal “equivalence” determinations to provide that assurance. Using examples from the areas of financial regulation and data protection, it considers the complex comparative law analysis that equivalence determinations require. It also notes the possibility that these regimes can be used in a more unilateral fashion to promote, or even force, regulatory convergence.

About the virtual workshop series:

The virtual workshop series “Current Research in Private International Law" is organised by Prof. Dr. Ralf Michaels and Christine Toman. The series features guest speakers and Institute staff members who present and discuss their work on current developments and research topics in private international law. The workshops are geared to scholars who are researching in the field of private international law, but attendance is open to all individuals having an academic interest (including doctoral candidates and students).