David Donald has been a Professor in the Faculty of Law at The Chinese University of Hong Kong since 2008. In 2010, he founded the CUHK Centre for Financial Regulation and Economic Development and served as its executive director until 2013, and again from 2016. In 2014 he founded the CUHK New Ventures Legal Team (NVLT), a clinical support group for the University’s Pre-Incubation Centre for startup companies. In 2017 NVLT was turned into the New Ventures Legal Clinic in conjunction with the CUHK Entrepreneurship Initiative. He has served in many administrative capacities, including as a member of the University Senate Committee on Student Discipline and director of the Faculty of Law’s PhD and MPhil Programmes.

From 2003 until 2008, David taught at the Institute for Law and Finance of the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. For the decade preceding that he worked as a commercial, corporate and securities lawyer in Washington, Milan, Rome and Frankfurt, serving the investment, acquisition and financing activities of multinational enterprises and as a member of the legal team that created the first international funds transfer system for the Euro.

David was a principal investigator of a five-year project (2012-2017) funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) Theme-based Research Scheme on “Enhancing Hong Kong’s Future as a Leading International Financial Centre” and was the principal investigator of a three-year public policy project (2009-2012) also funded by the RGC, “Anatomy of a Financial Centre: A systemic analysis of Hong Kong’s legal and regulatory framework for its securities market.” David has written extensively on market structure, securities clearing and settlement, and corporate law. His books include A Financial Centre for Two Empires: Hong Kong’s Corporate, Securities and Tax Laws in its Transition from Britain to China, The Hong Kong Stock and Futures Exchanges – Law and Microstructure and (with Andreas Cahn) Comparative Company Law (2nd ed. 2018).

David holds a PhD in Law (summa cum laude) and an LLM (magna cum laude) from the Goethe University, a Juris Doctor (cum laude) from Georgetown University and a PhD in Comparative Literature (high distinction) from SUNY Buffalo.

AFFILIATIONS

• Centre for Ethics and Law, University College London, since 2009
• Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries Academic Advisory Panel, since 2015
• Core Committee of Higher Education Forum, Taipei, since 2015
• Collaborator with the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, since 2018
• Asian Journal of Comparative Law, editorial board member since 2018
• Taiwan Law Review, editorial board member since 2019

EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Dr jur (Frankfurt, Germany)
• LL M (Frankfurt, Germany)
• JD (Washington DC, USA)
• PhD (Buffalo NY, USA)
• Admitted to practice law in the State of New York

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Company Law
• Comparative Law
• Capital Markets Law (Securities Regulation)
• Market Microstructure
• Ethics and the Law
• Legal History

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles

• “Pedagogy as Nudge? When Student Perceptions Spurn Improved Results,” Journal on Excellence in College Teaching (forthcoming 2021).
• “Legal System Network Effects and Global Legal Development,” Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law, 10: 267-306 (2020) (available at this link).
• “Commercial Law in an Age of Automation: Upstream Planning to Forestall Downstream Transaction Costs,” Taiwan Law Review, 300: 63-74 (2020).
• “Smart Precision Finance for Small Businesses Funding,” European Business Organization Law Review, 21: 1-19 (2020) (available at this link).
• “Multilateral Transparency for Securities Markets through DLT” (with Mahdi Miraz), Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law, 25: 97-154 (2019) (available at this link).
• “Hong Kong’s Roles in Supporting the Economic Development of China,” City University of Hong Kong Law Review, 6: 1-27 (2019) (available at this link).
• “From Block Lords to Blockchain: How Securities Dealers Make Markets,” Journal of Corporation Law, 44: 30-64 (2018).
• “Hong Kong’s Public Enforcement Model of Investor Protection,” Asian Journal of Law and Society, special section on Law and Economics in (East) Asia, 4(2):1-37 (2017), co-authored with Paul WH Cheuk.
• “Conceiving Corporate Governance for an Asian Environment,” University of Pennsylvania East Asia Law Review, 12: 88-138 (2016) (available at this link).
• “Bridging Finance without Fragmentation: A Comparative Look at Market Connectivity in the US, Europe and Asia,” European Business Organization Law Review, 16(2): 173-201 (2015).
• “Law in Regression? Impacts of Quantitative Research on Law and Regulation,” Columbia Business Law Review, 2015(2): 520-612 (2015) (available at this link).
• “Heart of Darkness: The Problem at the Core of the US Proxy System and Its Solution,” Virginia Law & Business Review, 5(3): 41-100 (2011).
• “Regulating Market Manipulation through an Understanding of Price Creation,” National Taiwan University Law Review, 5(1):55-89 (2011).
• “Approaching Comparative Company Law,” Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law, 14: 83-178 (2008) (available at this link).
• “Einige Nachteile der “intermediated” Wertpapierabwicklung und deren Überwindung,” DAJV NL 4:169 (2008).
• Die Übertragung von Kapitalmarktpapiere nach dem US-amerikanischen Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), Wertpapier Mitteilungen 12: 526 (2008).
• “Shareholder Voice and Its Opponents,” Journal of Corporate Law Studies, 5: 305-361 (2005).
• “Applying Germany’s Market Manipulation Rules to Disruptive Trades on the Eurex and MTS Platforms,” German Law Journal, 6(3): 649-666 (2005).
• “Die Entwicklung der US-amerikanischen Corporate Governance nach Enron,” 15 Wertpapier Mitteilungen 705 (2003).
• “Some Observations on the Use of Structural and Remedial Measures in American and German Law After Sarbanes-Oxley,” German Law Journal, 4(2): 127-135 (2003) (available at this link).
• “Mergers and Acquisitions in Italy,” International Financial Law Review, Italian Supplement (October 1994), co-authored with Gabriele Bernascone and Fillipo Dissertori.
• “Comments on the Italian Antitrust Law of October 1990,” International Lawyer 26: (1992).
• “Company Law in the European Community: Toward Supranational Incorporation,” Dickinson Journal of International Law 9: 1-51 (1990).
• “Taxation for a Single Market: European Community Legislation on Mergers, Distributed Profits, and Intracompany Sales,” Law & Policy in International Business 22: 37-73 (1990).
• “Toward a Single European Capital Market: The European Economic Community’s Directive to Liberalize Capital Flows,” Law & Policy in International Business, 23 (1988).

Books

• The Political Economy of Financial Regulation, edited, with Emilios Avgouleas, 530 pp. (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
• Comparative Company Law: Texts and Cases on the Laws Governing Corporations in Germany, the UK and the USA, co-authored with Andreas Cahn, 1084 pp. (Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed. 2018).
• A Financial Centre for Two Empires: Hong Kong’s Corporate, Securities and Tax Laws in Its Transition from Britain to China, with contributions by Wang JiangYu and Jefferson P. VanderWolk, 278 pp. (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
• The Hong Kong Stock and Futures Exchanges: Law and Microstructure, 297 pp. (Sweet & Maxwell, 2012).
• Der Einfluss der Wertpapierabwicklung auf die Ausübung von Aktionärsrechten (The Effects of Securities Settlement on the Exercise of Shareholder Rights) (Peter Lang, 2008).
• European Union Securities Regulation – in Transition: Key Directives in English and German / Das Kapitalmarktrecht der Europäischen Union im Wandel: Wesentliche Richtlinien in Englisch und Deutsch (Bowne, 2001), co-edited with Derek Savelle.
• The Italian Unified Banking and Credit Act (Kluwer/Ipsoa, 1994), translation of Italian law.

Book Chapters and Reviews

• “Disentangling Corporate Governance from Securities Market Imperatives through Data-Driven Finance,” in Technology and Corporate Law: How Innovation Shapes Corporate Activity, eds. Goodwin, Langford & Pey (Edward Elgar Publishers, 2021 forthcoming).
• “Adding ‘Responsible Owners’ to the ‘Entrepreneurial Owners’ in an International Financial Centre,” in Global Shareholder Stewardship: Complexities, Challenges and Possibilities, eds. Katelouzou & Puchniak (Cambridge University Press, 2020 forthcoming).
• “Hong Kong’s Fintech Automation: Economic Benefits and Social Risks,” in Regulating FinTech in Asia: Global Context, Local Perspectives, eds. Fenwick, van Uytsel and Ying (Springer, forthcoming 2020).
• “Networked Securities Markets: From Cross-Listing to Direct Connection,” in The Research Handbook on Asian Financial Law, pp. 86-100, eds. Arner, et al. (Edward Elgar Publishers, 2020).
• “Evolutionary Development in Hong Kong of Transplanted UK-Origin Takeover Rules,” in Comparative Takeover Regulation: Global and Asian Perspectives, eds. Wan and Varottil (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2017).
• “Endowment, Fundamentals and Fashion in the Market for Corporate Law,” in Festschrift for Theodore Baums, eds. Cahn and Sekmann (Mohr Siebeck in Tübingen, 2017).
• “Market Quality’ and Moral Hazard in Financial Market Design,” chapter in Rethinking Global Finance and Its Regulation, eds., Arner, Avgouleas & Buckley, pp. 217-235 (Cambridge University Press, 2016).
• “A People’s Market of Hong Kong: Facilitating Crowdfunding of SMEs”(coauthored with G Mok and A Fong), in Finance, Rule of Law and Development in Asia: Perspectives from Singapore, Hong Kong and Mainland China, eds. Hu, Vanhullebusch & Harding (Brill Academic Publishers, 2016).
• “Countering corrupting conflicts of interest: the example of Hong Kong,” chapter in Modern Bribery Law: Comparative Perspectives, eds. Alldridge and Horder (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
• “Key market institutions and infrastructure in global finance: Securities settlement systems,” in The Handbook of Key Global Financial Markets, Institutions, and Infrastructure, 557-564 (Elsevier Inc., 2012).
• “Book Review of The German Financial System” (Oxford: 2004), German Law Journal 6: 833-844 (2005).

Personal Web Site (with further research materials)

• https://sites.google.com/site/davidcdonald/