Professor of Company and Securities Law
FBA, PhD, MA, Solicitor
Interests
Corporate finance law. General company law. Financial regulation.
Research centres and interest groups
CV / Biography
Professor Eilís Ferran, FBA PhD is Professor of Company & Securities Law at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and an Emeritus Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. She is also the Provost of the Gates-Cambridge Trust, which provides scholarships for postgraduate study at Cambridge funded by a major donation from the Gates Foundation.
Between 2015 and 2021 she was the University’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Institutional and International Relations. As Pro-Vice-Chancellor she had strategic responsibility for Cambridge University’s staff policies and significant international academic partnerships. She led the modernisation of career paths, co-ordinated the University’s response to covid as an employer, and was instrumental in the development of the University’s Strategic Partnerships Office. Between 2012 and 2015 she served as Chair of the University’s Law Faculty.
In her research, Eilís has written extensively on UK, EU and international financial regulation, company law and corporate finance law. Her publications include Brexit and Financial Services (Hart Publishing, 2017 co-authored), The Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation (OUP, 2015, co-edited) and The Regulatory Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (CUP 2012, co-authored). Eilis founded the University of Cambridge LLM Corporate Finance law paper and has taught on it over many years. With co-authors Elizabeth Howell (London School of Economics) and Felix Steffek (Cambridge), she has recently completed a new edition of the textbook Principles of Corporate Finance Law (OUP, 2023). Eilis has advised UK Parliamentary committees and served as an academic member of the Stakeholder Group of the European Banking Authority.
Eilís is a Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple. She is an independent non-executive director of Euroclear Holding SA/NV and Euroclear SA/NV, and is the Chair of the Group Nomination and Governance Committee. She is also a non-executive director of the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge.
Selected publications
Books
Principles of Corporate Finance Law (with Elizabeth Howell; Felix Steffek), 2023) 3rd Edition
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
9780198854074
Brexit and Financial Services (with Kern Alexander, Catherine Barnard, Andrew Lang, Niamh Moloney), 2018)
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
9781509915804
The Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation (with Niamh Moloney, and Jennifer Payne) (eds), 2015)
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
978-0-19-968720-6
The Regulatory Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (with N Moloney, JA Hill, JC Coffee), 2012)
Building an EU Securities Market, 2004)
Publisher:
ISBN:
0521847222
ISBN 13:
9780521847223
Regulating Financial Services and Markets in the 21st Century (with Goodhart (ed)) (eds), 2001)
Publisher:
ISBN:
1841132799
ISBN 13:
9781841132792
Articles
"Reconciling Shareholder Primacy and the Interests of People and Planet" (2025) 141 Law Quarterly Review
Citation:
(2025) 141 Law Quarterly Review
Published: Forthcoming
"The Regulation of Corporate Governance in European Financial Market Infrastructures: A Critique" (2024) 21 European Company and Financial Law Review 1-38
Citation:
(2024) 21 European Company and Financial Law Review 1-38
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1515/ecfr-2024-0001
Published: May 2024
"International Competitiveness and Financial Regulators’ Mandates: Coming Around Again in the UK" (2023) 9 Journal of Financial Regulation 30–54
Citation:
(2023) 9 Journal of Financial Regulation 30–54
DOI:
10.1093/jfr/fjad001
Published: Mar 2023
"Shareholder Engagement and Custody Chains" (2022) 23 European Business Organization Law Review 507–539
Citation:
(2022) 23 European Business Organization Law Review 507–539
DOI:
10.1007/s40804-022-00256-0
Published: Mar 2022
"Revisiting Legal Capital" (2019) 20 EBOR 521-545
Citation:
(2019) 20 EBOR 521-545
Published: Sep 2019
"The UK as a Third Country Actor in EU Financial Services Regulation" (2017) 3 Journal of Financial Regulation 40-65
Citation:
(2017) 3 Journal of Financial Regulation 40-65
Published: Sep 2017
"Corporate Mobility and Company Law " (2016) Modern Law Review 813-839
Citation:
(2016) Modern Law Review 813-839
Published: Jul 2016
"The Existential Search of the European Banking Authority" (2016) European Business Organization Law Review
Citation:
(2016) European Business Organization Law Review
Published: Jul 2016
"The European Single Supervisory Mechanism" (2013) 13 Journal of Corporate Law Studies 255-285
Citation:
(2013) 13 Journal of Corporate Law Studies 255-285
Published: Aug 2013
"Regulatory Lessons from the Payment Protection Insurance Mis-selling Scandal in the UK" (2012) 13 European Business Organization Law Review 247-270
Citation:
(2012) 13 European Business Organization Law Review 247-270
Published: Jul 2012
"Crisis-Driven EU Financial Regulatory Reform" SSRN abstract_id=2028003
Citation:
SSRN abstract_id=2028003
Published: Jul 2012
"The New Mandate for the Supervision of Financial Services Conduct" Current Legal Problems (2012)
Citation:
Current Legal Problems (2012)
Published: Jul 2012
"New Regulation of Remuneration in the Financial Sector in the EU" (2012) 9 European Company and Financial Law Review 1-34
Citation:
(2012) 9 European Company and Financial Law Review 1-34
Published: Feb 2012
"The Reorganisation of Financial Services Supervision in the UK: An Interim Progress Report" University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 49/2011
Citation:
University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 49/2011
Published: Nov 2011
"The Break-up of the Financial Services Authority" (2011) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 455-480
Citation:
(2011) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 455-480
Published: Oct 2011
"Directors' liability for unlawful dividends" (2011) 70 CLJ 321-326
Citation:
(2011) 70 CLJ 321-326
Published: Oct 2011
"After the crisis: the regulation of hedge funds and private equity in the EU" (2011) 12 European Business Organization Law Review 379-414
Citation:
(2011) 12 European Business Organization Law Review 379-414
Published: Jun 2011
"Corporate Attribution and the Directing Mind and Will" (2011) 127 LQR 239-259
Citation:
(2011) 127 LQR 239-259
Published: Apr 2011
"˜Can Soft Law Bodies Be Effective? The Special Case of the European Systemic Risk Board"" [2010] ELR 751 - 776
"Are US-Style Investor Suits Coming to the UK?" [2009] Journal of Corporate Law Studies 315-348
Citation:
[2009] Journal of Corporate Law Studies 315-348
Published: Oct 2009
"Capital Market Openness After Financial Turmoil" Working paper
"What’s Wrong with Rights Issues" (2008) 2 Law and Financial Markets Review 523 – 536
Citation:
(2008) 2 Law and Financial Markets Review 523 – 536
Published: Oct 2008
"Capital Market Competitiveness and Enforcement" Working paper
"Non-Enforcement-led Public Oversight of Financial and Corporate Governance Disclosures and of Auditors" [2008] Journal of Corporate Law Studies 191 – 224
Citation:
[2008] Journal of Corporate Law Studies 191 – 224
Published: Mar 2008
"Transatlantic Financial Services Regulatory Dialogue" European Business Organization Law Review (EBOR) (2006), 7 : 647-673
Citation:
European Business Organization Law Review (EBOR) (2006), 7 : 647-673
Published: Jan 2007
"Cross-border Offers of Securities in the EU: The Standard Life Flotation" [2007] European Company and Financial Law Review 461-490
Citation:
[2007] European Company and Financial Law Review 461-490
Published: Dec 2006
"The Place for Creditor Protection on the Agenda for Modernisation of Company law in the European Union" (2006) 3 European Company and Financial Law Review 178
Citation:
(2006) 3 European Company and Financial Law Review 178
Published: Jul 2006
"Financial Assistance: Changing Policy Perceptions but Static Law" [2004] Cambridge Law Journal 225 - 243
Citation:
[2004] Cambridge Law Journal 225 - 243
Published: Mar 2004
"The Role of the Shareholder in Internal Corporate Governance: Enabling Shareholders to Make Better-informed Decisions" [2003] European Business Organization Law Review 491 - 516
Citation:
[2003] European Business Organization Law Review 491 - 516
Published: Dec 2003
"Examining the UK Experience in Adopting the Single Financial Regulator Model" (2003) 28 Brooklyn Journal of International Law 257-307
Citation:
(2003) 28 Brooklyn Journal of International Law 257-307
Published: Apr 2003
"Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in the UK Financial Sector" [2002] Civil Justice Quarterly 135-155 (also published in a report to the Korean Stock Exchange, Self-Regulation in the Korean Securities Market Korean Securities Law Association, 2002)
Citation:
[2002] Civil Justice Quarterly 135-155 (also published in a report to the Korean Stock Exchange, Self-Regulation in the Korean Securities Market Korean Securities Law Association, 2002)
Published: Mar 2002
"Corporate Law Codes and Social Norms - Finding the Right Regulatory Combination and Institutional Structure" [2001] Journal of Corporate Law Studies 381-409
Citation:
[2001] Journal of Corporate Law Studies 381-409
Published: Dec 2001
"Company Law Reform in the UK' (2001) 5 Singapore Journal of International and Comparative Law 516-568" (2001) 5 Singapore Journal of International and Comparative Law 516-568
Citation:
(2001) 5 Singapore Journal of International and Comparative Law 516-568
Published: Jun 2001
Book Chapters
"The Roles and Risks of European Central Securities Depositories" (with Eleanore Hickman) in J-H Binder, P Saguato (ed(s)), Financial Market Infrastructure: Law and Regulation , 2022)
"A legal framework for financial market integration: resetting the agenda beyond the sectoral single rulebook" in Franklin Allen, Ester Faia, Michael Haliassos and Katja Langenbucher (ed(s)), Capital Market Union and Beyond, 2019)
Published Dec 2019
"Recognition of third country equivalence in EU financial law – an obstacle or a way forward for future EU-UK bilateral arrangements?" in European Central Bank (ed(s)), Legal Conference Book , 2018)
Publisher:
Published Sep 2018
"European Banking Union and the EU Single Financial Market: More Differentiated Integration, or Disintegration", Between Flexibility and Disintegration: The State of EU Law Today , 2016)
Publisher:
Published Jun 2016
"The co-existence of National and EU law and the ne bis in idem principle" in ECB (ed(s)), From Monetary Union to Banking Union, on the way to Capital Markets Union , 2015)
Publisher:
Published Dec 2015
"European Banking Union: Imperfect, But It Can Work" in D Busch and G Ferrarini (ed(s)), European Banking Union , 2015)
Publisher:
Published Nov 2015
"EU Financial Supervision in the Context of Global Financial Governance", Europe's Place in Global Financial Governance, 2014)
"Institutional Design: The Choice for National Systems", Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation, 2014)
Publisher:
Published Jul 2014
"EU Financial Supervision in the Context of Global Financial Governance", Europe's Place in Global Financial Governance , 2013)
Publisher:
Published Dec 2013
"Crisis driven regulatory reform" (with E Ferran, N Moloney, Jennifer G Hill, John C Coffee), The Regulatory Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, 2012), pp. 1-110
"Understanding the New Institutional Architecture of EU Financial Market Supervision" (with G Ferrarini, KJ Hopt and E Wymeersch), Rethinking Financial Regulation and Supervision in Times of Crisis, 2012)
Publisher:
Published Jul 2012
"Capital Market Openness After Financial Turmoil" (with P Koutrakos and M Evans), Beyond the Established Orders, 2010)
Publisher:
Published Sep 2010
"Three Recent Developments in Auditors’ Liability", Festschrift für Klaus J Hopt zum 70 Geburtstag, 2010)
Publisher:
Published Aug 2010
"Share Capital" (with G Morse), Palmer’s Company Law (looseleaf), 2010)
"Financial Assistance" (with G Morse), Palmer's Company Law (looseleaf), 2010)
"Principles-based, risk-based regulation and effective enforcement" (with M Tison, H De Wulf, C Van der Elst and R Steennot), Perspectives in Financial Regulation, 2009), pp. 427-448
Publisher:
Pages:
427-448
ISBN 13:
978-0-521-51570-2
Published Sep 2009
"Enforcement of Insider Dealing Laws" (with J Armour and J Payne), Rationality in Company Law: Essays in Honour of DD Prentice, 2009), pp. 57 - 70
Publisher:
Pages:
57 - 70
ISBN 13:
9781841138060
Published Feb 2009
Book Reviews
Company Law and Economic Protectionism (2011) 12 EBOR 681-684
Published Dec 2011
Reports
"Response to the European Commission's Report on the Application of the Takeover Bids Directive" (European Company Law Experts, Jul 2014) University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 5/2014
Reference Number:
University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 5/2014
Body / Institution:
European Company Law Experts
Link to report
Published: Jul 2014
"The Future of European Company Law" (European Company Law Experts, Jul 2014) Columbia Law and Economics Research Paper No. 420
Reference Number:
Columbia Law and Economics Research Paper No. 420
Body / Institution:
European Company Law Experts
Link to report
Published: Jul 2014
"Are the Lamfalussy Regulatory Networks Working Successfully?" (European Policy Forum, Jun 2007)
Body / Institution:
European Policy Forum
Published: Jun 2007
"Regulation of Private Equity-Backed Leveraged Buyout Activity in Europe" (ECGI Law Working Paper, May 2007) 084/2007
Reference Number:
084/2007
Body / Institution:
ECGI Law Working Paper
Link to report
Published: May 2007
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