Corporate finance and secured transactions law regulates the ways in which a company can finance its operation and creditors protect their rights; as such, it plays a key role in enabling business and economic activities. The course offers an overview of this field of law from a distinctively transnational and comparative perspective: rather than focusing on a specific jurisdiction, it provides a broad-stroke understanding of general principles and concepts as can be found in multiple legal systems. Against this background, the students are asked to engage in research and investigate how these general notions are operationalized in their national systems. Each class, hence, proceeds in two parts: first the lecturers present the principles, and then the students take the floor to explain whether and how those principles find application in a certain jurisdiction.

The course starts by introducing the different ways in which a company can finance itself and the difference between equity and debt. The following classes then scrutinize the different ways in which creditors can obtain protection, through contractual or proprietary methods. Particular attention is devoted to the mechanisms whereby security rights are created, and the priorities that these rights afford a lender against third parties having competing proprietary interests. Subsequently, the focus shifts toward enforcement of security rights, and the issues arising out of the involvement of multiple lenders financing the same company. Finally, the last class is devoted to a case-study that addresses the main concepts covered throughout the course.