Do Market Abuse Rules Violate Human Rights? The Grande Stevens v. Italy Case

Do Market Abuse Rules Violate Human Rights? The Grande Stevens v. Italy Case

Marco Ventoruzzo

Series number :

Serial Number: 
269/2014

Date posted :

October 01 2014

Last revised :

November 07 2014
SSRN Share

Keywords

  • market abuse • 
  • insider trading • 
  • market manipulations • 
  • European Convention on Human Rights • 
  • due process • 
  • double jeopardy

The 2014 decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case ?Grande Stevens


and Others v. Italy? raises numerous complex issues concerning the regulation of market abuses in Italy, Europe, and also in other systems. The broad questions that the Court of Strasburg addresses, specifically concerning the nature of administrative sanctions and civil penalties, due process in administrative sanctioning procedures, and double jeopardy issues when both criminal and civil sanctions can be inflicted, not only are extremely relevant practically for the current and future regulation of insider trading and market manipulation, but also open a more theoretical discussion on the relationships between the only apparently unrelated fields of human rights and enforcement in financial markets. This Article offers an analysis of the decision, also in the light of future developments due to the recent reform of European law on market abuse, and compares this landmark European decision with corresponding U.S. case law.

Authors

Research Member, Representative Member
Paolo Baffi Center on Financial Regulation, Bocconi University Law Department