Policy Documents

The secured transactions regime under English law needs to be ‘best in class’ if we are to compete in today’s global markets. This means that the regime needs to be modern, efficient and as forward-looking as possible. The aim of the Secured Transactions Law Reform Project (STR) is to formulate reform proposals based on this ideal. Its current approach, as explained in the April 2016 Draft Policy Paper, is to identify the irreducible core aspects of a modern secured transactions law: these form the agreed basis of the STR’s proposals. Papers exploring the non-core issues are available here.

These papers are produced by academic members of the project, and are designed as an introduction to debate. They do not represent any concluded views of the project, nor have they yet been discussed within the project working groups. They are merely discussion papers, and set out the relevant arguments for and against various types of reform. They are informed by studies of other systems of secured transactions law. In particular, reference is made to Article 9 of the US Commercial Code and what are referred to as the ‘PPSAs’: a collective term comprising the legislation in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jersey and, in some cases, other jurisdictions. The provisions in these related pieces of legislation are not identical, and the relevant differences are pointed out in the discussion papers, usually in appendices. For a general overview of the PPSA scheme, see the Case for Reform.

Click on the links below to access the policy documents published by the STLRP.

April 2016 Draft Policy Paper

2018 Discussion Papers