The Law of Security and Title-Based Financing

Personal property security is an important subject in commercial practice as it is the key to much of the law of banking and sale. This book examines traditional methods of securing debts (such as mortgages, charges and pledges as well as so-called 'quasi-security') on property other than land, describing how these are created, how they must be registered (or otherwise 'perfected') if they are to be valid, the rights and duties of the parties and how the security is enforced if the debt is not paid.

This fourth edition has been updated to incorporate recent political and legal developments, including Brexit. The 'Edinburgh Reforms', which have followed the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, promise a thorough overhaul of the consumer credit regime. The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 potentially affects the interpretation of EU assimilated law, including the Financial Collateral Arrangements (No2) Regulations (FCARs).

This edition further assesses the implications of the Business Contract Terms (Assignment of Receivables) Regulations 2018, taking pledges over electronic documents of title in the light of the Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023, the outlawing of 'ipso facto' clauses by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020, and the reduced scope of the EU Insolvency Regulation. The treatment of insolvency matters within the framework of the Cape Town Convention is also considered, as are recent cases on pledges of bills of lading when the carrier no longer has possession of the goods, the distinction between fixed and floating charges, equitable liens and the right of appropriation of financial collateral. There is a full discussion of the taking of security over digital assets and the relevance of the FCARs.

The only full-length treatment covering both traditional security over personal property and also devices that fulfil a similar economic function, such as retention of title and sales of receivables, The Law of Security and Title-Based Financing is a frequently-cited and indispensable reference work both for practitioners and academics.

Michael Bridge, Emeritus Professor, LSE, London School of Economics, Louise Gullifer, Rouse Ball Professor of English Law, University of Cambridge, Eva Lomnicka,Professor of Law, Professor of Law, King's College London Bencher of the Middle Temple

Michael Bridge is an emeritus Cassel Professor of Commercial Law at the London School of Economics Law, Visiting Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore, and Senior Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, an honorary King's Counsel, a Bencher of the Middle Temple and a door tenant of 20 Essex Street chambers. His has acted as an advisor to the Fourth American Restatement on Property Law; is a member of the CISG Advisory Council; was a member of the Lando Commission on European Contract Law and participated in the Trento Project on the Common Core of Private Law and in the European Civil Code Study Group. He has written many books and articles on commercial law, contract law, and personal property law

Professor Louise Gullifer KC (Hon) FBA is Rouse Ball Professor of English Law at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. She is an associate member of 3VB, where she practiced for a number of years, and a Bencher of Gray's Inn. She was the founding director of the Commercial Law Centre at Harris Manchester College and executive director of the Secured Transaction Law Reform Project, as well as the Oxford academic lead of the Cape Town Convention Academic Project. She was the UK delegate to both UNCITRAL (working group VI) during its work on secured transactions, and is one of the UK delegates to the UNIDROIT conferences on the Cape Town Convention, as well as a member of a number of UNIDROIT working groups

Eva Lomnicka became a professor in 1993 and, having spent her entire academic career at King's, was awarded a King's Lifetime Achievement award in 2018. Her research interests have centred on financial regulation, in particular consumer credit law. She was on the DTI's Consumer Credit Steering Group which led to the Consumer Credit Act 2006. She was also an expert on the UK's delegation to UNCITRAL's Convention on Receivables Financing (Vienna and New York: 1997-2001). With John Powell QC she established and until recently edited Sweet and Maxwell's Encyclopedia of Financial Services Law and she contributes to a number of leading practitioner texts. She is on the Advisory Board of a number of academic journals and was a founder member (and is on the Advisory Board) of the Financial Services Lawyers Association. Until recently she maintained an advisory practice at the Bar, was appointed a Bencher of the Middle Temple in 2014 and Q.C. (Honoris causa) in 2020