Hal S. Scott

Nomura Professor of International Financial Systems

Director, Program on International Financial Systems

Biographical Statement

Hal S. Scott is the Nomura Professor and Director of the Program on International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School, where he has taught since 1975. He teaches courses on Capital Markets Regulation, International Finance, and Securities Regulation. He has a B.A. from Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School, 1965), an M.A. from Stanford University in Political Science (1967), and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School (1972). In 1974-1975, before joining Harvard, he clerked for Justice Byron White. The Program on International Financial Systems, founded in 1986, engages in a variety of research projects. Its latest report is Capital Adequacy Beyond Basel (Oxford University Press 2004), an examination of capital adequacy rules for banks, insurance companies and securities firms. The Program also organizes the annual invitation-only U.S.- Japan, U.S.- Europe, and U.S.-China Symposia on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century, attended by financial system leaders in the concerned countries. In addition, the Program directs Socratic style dialogues among financial leaders on issues of current interest. The Program also directs a concentration in International Finance for LLM students at Harvard Law School. The capstone to the concentration is a year-long research seminar. Professor Scott's books include the law school textbook International Finance: Transactions, Policy and Regulation (15th ed. Foundation Press 2008) and International Finance: Policy and Regulation (2nd ed. Sweet & Maxwell 2007). His recent articles include "Internationalization of Primary Public Securities Markets Revisited," in Capital Markets in the Age of the Euro: Cross-Border Transactions, Listed Companies and Regulation, eds. K Hopt, E. Wymeersch and G. Ferrarini (Kluwer 2002) and "International Finance: Rule Choices for Global Financial Markets," in Research Handbook in International Economic Law, eds. A. Guzman and A. Sykes (Elgar 2007). Professor Scott is the Director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, a non-profit organization formed to research and formulate recommendations for improvements in the regulation of U.S. capital markets. With the encouragement of Treasury Secretary Paulson, the Committee released its Interim Report in November 2006 on the competitiveness of the U.S. public equity market. In May 2009, the Committee issued another report, The Global Financial Crisis: A Plan for Regulatory Reform. Professor Scott is also an independent director of Lazard, Ltd. He is a past President of the International Academy of Consumer and Commercial Law and a past Governor of the American Stock Exchange (2002-2005).

Appointments

• Assistant Professor of Law, 1975
• Professor of Law, 1980
• Director, Program on International Financial Systems, 1986
• Nomura Professor of International Financial Systems, 1990

Education

• Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University B.A. 1965
• Stanford University M.A. 1969, Political Science
• University of Chicago Law School J.D. 1972

Research Interests

• Capital Markets Regulation
• International Finance
• Sovereign Debt

Subject Areas for Accepting Press Inquiries

• Banking Law
• Banking Regulation
• Capital Markets Regulation
• Faculty Expert on Asia
• Faculty Expert on Europe
• Finance
• International Business Transactions
• International Law

Subject Areas for Supervising Written Work

• Capital Markets Regulation
• International Finance
• Payments System

Representative Publications

• Scott, Hal S. International Finance: Transactions, Policy, and Regulation (Foundation Press 14th ed. 2007).
  Full text: AMAZON (Purchase)
  (This is the leading textbook in the field)
  
• Capital Adequacy Beyond Basel: Banking, Securities, and Insurance (Hal S. Scott ed., Oxford University Press 2005).
  Full text: AMAZON (Purchase)
  
• Scott, Hal S. "The Internationalization of Primary Public Securities Markets," 63 Duke Journal of Law and Contemporary Problems 71 (2000).
  Full text: WWW || WWW || SSRN (Harvard Users) || SSRN
  
• Scott, Hal S. "When the Euro Falls Apart," 1 International Finance 207 (1998).
  Full text: WWW
  
• Scott, Hal S. & Sydney J. Key. "International Trade in Banking Services: A Conceptual Framework", Group of Thirty Occasional Paper 35 (1991).
  

Bibliography

View bibliography