Venture Capital, the Regions and Public Policy: The United Kingdom since the Post-2000 Technology Crash

This chapter integrates agency research with an institutional perspective and investigates multiple agency conflicts in venture capital (VC) syndicates and their effect on stock-market performance of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the United States and the United Kingdom. Using a matched sample of 402 IPOs, the authors show that the size and diversity of a VC syndicate have a negative impact on performance, but this impact is higher in the United States. Ownership concentration within a syndicate improves performance, but this effect is stronger in the United Kingdom. Results indicate that the extent of multiple agency conflicts and their potential remedies are not universal and depend on formal and informal institutions.

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Surrogacy and public policy

Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly ◽

10.53386/nilq.v72i3.981 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 72 (3) ◽

pp. 588-595

Author(s):

Elaine O’Callaghan

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

United Kingdom ◽

Supreme Court ◽

Legal Framework ◽

Commercial Surrogacy ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The Supreme Court ◽

The Law

The Supreme Court in the United Kingdom has held that it is not contrary to public policy to award damages in tort to fund a commercial surrogacy in another jurisdiction where this is lawful. This significant decision, in the case of Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX [2020] UKSC 14, will potentially have an impact on the regulation and reform of surrogacy law in the United Kingdom, Ireland and internationally. The judgment delivered by Lady Hale draws attention to multiple inconsistencies in the law, and it highlights, in particular, the need for effective regulation of domestic surrogacy. Legislators face an important and imminent challenge to reconcile the reality of commercial surrogacy with a deficient legal framework. This article seeks to highlight some of the important issues which this case has raised when considering regulation and reform of surrogacy law.

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Are “Stranger Donors” Irrational?

10.7591/cornell/9781501755439.003.0007 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 55-60

Author(s):

Martha Gershun ◽

John D. Lantos

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Public Policy ◽

United Kingdom ◽

The United States ◽

Federal Legislation ◽

Organ Donors ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Transplant Registry ◽

Altruistic Donor ◽

Psychological Benefit

This chapter seeks to understand the motivations of people who offered to donate a kidney to a stranger. It explores the degree of emotional relationship that was essential to justify the claim that donation provided a psychological benefit to the donor. The chapter also mentions a law in the United Kingdom called the Unrelated Live Transplant Registry Authority which required organ donors to provide proof that they had a relationship with the recipient. In the United States, however, there is no federal legislation or public policy regulating stranger donors. The chapter then turns to discuss a study led by nephrologist Aaron Spital showing how attitudes within the transplant community gradually shifted from almost universal rejection of stranger donors to their gradual acceptance. It assesses the struggles that nephrologists went through in trying to determine whether such altruists were noble or irrational. Ultimately, the chapter offers a unique glimpse into the motivations of an altruistic donor and into the forms of skepticism that doctors and psychologists bring to evaluations of such donors.

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The Lex Fori

The Conflict of Laws ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198838500.003.0004 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 172-194

Author(s):

Adrian Briggs

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

United Kingdom ◽

International Law ◽

Private International Law ◽

English Court ◽

Conflict Of Laws ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Foreign Law ◽

The Law

This chapter examines of the role of the lex fori in English private international law before proceeding to examine the rules of the conflict of laws applicable in an English court. Issues for which the rules of the conflict of laws select the lex fori as the law to be applied include grounds for the dissolution (as distinct from nullity) of marriage, even if the marriage has little or nothing to do with the United Kingdom; or settlement of the distribution of assets in an insolvency even though there may be significant overseas elements. Where the rules of the conflict of laws select a foreign law, its application, even though it is proved to the satisfaction of the court, may be disrupted or derailed by a provision of the lex fori instead. The remainder of the chapter covers procedural issues; penal, revenue, and public laws; and public policy.

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