The Journal Committee at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow, in collaboration with Regstreet Law Advisors, is organising the 8th edition of the RMLNLU International Legal Essay Writing Competition (“RILEC”) along with RMLNLU-Regstreet Law Advisors Conference on Financial Regulatory Law on 14 March 2021.
Sub-themes:
Regulatory Hurdles to the Growth of a Successful IFSC in India
International Financial Services Centre (‘IFSC’) is a dedicated hub of financial services participants within a country, which has laws and regulations different from the rest of the country. An IFSC allows overseas financial institutions and overseas branches/subsidiaries of Indian financial institutions to operate within India and cater to customers outside the jurisdictions of India. This is achieved only when the IFSC provide favourable regulatory regimes and business environment to investors and financial institutions. Participants may analyse the importance of IFSC and the regulatory hurdles to their growth in India.
Financial Regulations and the Innovation in Fintech
Fintech has seen tremendous growth and innovation in the past few years all around the world. Regulatory and compliance standards vary across countries and are closely interlinked with the innovations in the sector. Higher regulatory standards increase the operative costs for the enterprises thus reducing the potential for innovation. While less restrictive and innovation-friendly approaches like regulatory sandbox help in bringing growth to the sector. Participants may analyse the regulatory framework for fintech and its impact on the innovation in the sector.
Direct Overseas Listing
The government has proposed to allow a certain class of companies to list directly in foreign jurisdictions, allowing them to raise capital. The actual implementation of the policy would require an amendment to several laws and regulations. This is a shift from the earlier policy of allowing access only through depository receipts or by listing the debt securities on foreign markets. The participants may discuss the proposed framework and its importance for the Indian companies in raising capital. The participants may also explore the regulatory difficulties to be faced by the Indian companies while listing in foreign jurisdictions.
Resolution of Financial Firms
The health of a financial firm is important for integrity, stability and resilience of the financial system. But in spite of the heavy regulations, financial firms fail to cause huge disruption in the market. India currently lacks a comprehensive system for the resolution of such firms. The Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill was introduced in the parliament to fill the lacunae but was withdrawn in August 2018. Government, later, extended the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (‘IBC’) framework for resolution of bigger NBFCs and HFCs. IBC is primarily for resolving corporate and personal insolvencies and is not believed to be the best-suited approach for resolving financial firms. Participants may analyse the present framework and compare it with the existing one in other jurisdictions.
Analysis of the Stock Exchange Responses to Curb the Pandemic Caused Volatility
The economic crisis caused by COVID-19 triggered numerous regulatory reactions in the stock exchanges across the world. The regulators such as SEBI, SEC etc were required to respond quickly in order to curb the prevailing uncertainties. This led to various regulatory changes including but not limited to short selling. The participants may do a comparative analysis of the response of the major regulators all over the world to suggest the best practices along with the suggestions to tackle such a situation in future.
Social Stock Exchange
An SSE allows the listing of non-profit or non-government organisations on stock exchanges, providing them with an alternative fund-raising structure. It may be listed on BSE or NSE. Countries like the UK, Canada and Brazil have SSEs. The Social Stock Exchange report, prepared by a SEBI-appointed Working Group, envisions a paradigm shift for the social sector ecosystem and especially for non-profit organisations. The key objective of such an exchange will be to unlock large pools of capital and their channeling through scalable instruments and structures to NPOs. The participants may discuss the need for SSE in India and analyse the proposed framework. Participants may also draw a comparison with the standard practices and laws existing in other countries to suggest the changes in India for effective implementation of SSE.
Trading Member Default
A Trading Member default occurs if a trading member fails to meet an obligation to another Trading Member or constituent arising out of Exchange transactions. In such a situation the relevant authority may order a Trading Member to be declared a defaulter. In recent times, the market has been shaken by big-ticket trading defaults by entities like Karvy, Anugrah, IndiaNivesh and the now infamous National Sports Exchange Limited (NSEL) scam. This led to the SEBI recently issuing a whole new raft of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to tackle the issue of trading member defaults and prevent further losses. However, questions have been raised regarding the efficacy of these new guidelines and there are concerns that there still linger loopholes to allow for another upcoming default or infamous scam. Participants may explore the efficacy of the introduced SOPs and analyse whether they are truly enough to keep the spectre of trading member defaults at bay.
ELIGIBILITY
Authors must be pursuing their 5-year integrated LL.B. (Hons.) course / 3-year LL.B. course / LL.M. from any recognised university in India and an equivalent law degree, abroad for the academic year of 2020-2021, to be eligible to participate in the Competition.
STRUCTURE
All entries will be judged and ranked by the Regstreet Law Advisors and Journal Committee. The last date for submission is 31 January 2021. A maximum of top five entries will be selected for the virtual conference to be organised on 14 March 2021. The participants may adopt any suitable means for presenting the papers including audio-visual aids, such as PowerPoint presentation.
The selected entries will be considered for publication in the next issue of RMLNLU Law Review-Journal & the RMLNLU Law Review Blog. The top three essays will be conferred with rewards.
PARTICIPATION GUIDELINES
- Co-authorship of entries (maximum two) among individuals from the same or different institutions is allowed.
- Multiple entries for the same authors are not allowed.
- A participant may submit an entry related to ONE sub-theme ONLY. One may not juxtapose sub-themes in an entry
- Entries should be original, unpublished and non-plagiarised.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
- Word Limit: 4000-4500 words (excluding footnotes).
- Individual Attachments: Name; contact details; current academic status (Year, University, etc.); undertaking as to guarantee of originality
- Formatting specifications:
- Font and size for the essay: Times New Roman | 12
- Font and size for footnotes: Times New Roman | 10
- Line spacing: 1.5
- Citation Style: Uniform Style of citation should be followed throughout the essay.
- The file name must consist only of the author’s name.
- Entries should be emailed to rilec.rmlnlu@gmail.com under the subject title “Entry for 8th RILEC – [Name(s) of Author(s)]” in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) format.
- The last date for the submission of soft copies is 31st January 2021.
MISCELLANEOUS RULES
- The copyright for all entries shall vest with the organisers who herewith reserve the right to modify, postpone or defer the competition and its adjudication indefinitely as and when exigencies of an unforeseen nature may arise.
- Any attempt, direct or indirect, to contact the panel of judges will be met with the immediate disqualification of the relevant entry.
- Any indication of the author’s name or university in the entry shall lead to immediate disqualification from the competition
PRIZES
- Winner – INR 15,000
- First Runner Up – INR 10,000
- Second Runner Up – INR 5,000
Top three entries will be receiving a ‘certificate of achievement’ and an opportunity to intern at Regstreet Law Advisors.
A ‘certificate of merit’ shall be provided to the selected entries.
Selected entries will get an opportunity to be considered for publication in the next issue of the RMLNLU Law Review-Journal & the RMLNLU Law Review Blog.
All participants shall be receiving a ‘certificate of participation’.
CONTACT
- Write to us at rilec.rmlnlu@gmail.com in case of queries.
- You may also reach us through the phone.
• Agrima Gupta: +91 9810373335
• Harshit Agrawal: +91 9425429954
• Anmol Adhrit: +91 8825314318
Click here to find more details regarding the competition.
The RMLNLU Law Review Blog 