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The Legal Implications of the European Monetary Union Under U.S. And 7+(/(*$/,03/,&$7,216 2)7+((8523($1021(7$5<81,21 81'(586$1'1(:<25./$: 1LDOO/HQLKDQ Niall Lenihan is a lawyer with the Legal Division of the European Monetary Institute, forerunner to the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany. From May 1991 to December 1997 he was an attorney at the New York law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell, specializing as a corporate securities lawyer. In 1995 he established the Wall Street Committee on the Transition to EMU, the first U.S. based working group to consider the implications of EMU for North American financial markets. He has also served as a member of the Brussels-based European Commission/ ECU Banking Association ad hoc working group on the legal definition of the ECU. He has advised a large number of American financial institutions and corporations regarding the legal implications of EMU for eurobond, swap and derivatives contracts governed by New York law . He is a member of the New York Bar and a law graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and Cambridge University, England. i ³0RQH\KDVEHHQLQWURGXFHGE\FRQYHQWLRQDVD NLQGRIVXEVWLWXWHIRUDQHHGRUGHPDQGDQG LWVYDOXHLVGHULYHGQRWIURPQDWXUHEXWIURP ODZDQGFDQEHDOWHUHGRUDEROLVKHGDWZLOO´ ARISTOTLE, NICHOMACHEAN ETHICS Book 5, ch. 5 (F. H. Peters trans., 156, 15th ed. 1893) ii $&.12:/('*0(176 The author would like to thank the following: Vincent Chang of Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York, for his helpful comments and thoughts; Ritz Cinco, Rosita Lyons and the word processing staff of Davis Polk & Wardwell, for their secretarial assistance; Michael Diviney of Round Hall Sweet & Maxwell, Dublin, Ireland, for his advice and expertise as a legal publisher; John Gardner of Schwab Washington Research, Washington D.C. and formerly of Davis Polk & Wardwell, for his research assistance in the early stages of this project, particularly for unearthing various international treaties relevant to the legal implications of EMU under U.S. law; Pauline McMahon, New York, for her fresh insights as a non-lawyer, particularly on the constitutional aspects of EMU; Dragan Stenek, Brooklyn Law School, New York, for his help; and Dr. Helmut Wittelsberger, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, for his invaluable observations and advice. Finally, the author would like to acknowledge his late father Brian Lenihan, Irish delegate to the Hanover European Council summit meeting in June 1988, who provided some of the inspiration for the author’s interest in Europe’s economic and monetary union. iii 7$%/(2)&217(176 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................. I I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 $2XWOLQHRI6WXG\ .............................................................................................................. 1 %7KH0DDVWULFKW7UHDW\ .................................................................................................... 2 &,PSDFWRI(08RQ86)LQDQFLDO0DUNHWV.................................................................... 3 1. OTC Derivatives Market ....................................................................................... 3 2. Eurobond Market................................................................................................... 5 3. Exchange-traded Derivatives Markets................................................................... 5 4. Other Cross Border Transactions .......................................................................... 5 '3UHSDUDWLRQVIRU(08E\86)LQDQFLDO0DUNHWV ........................................................ 6 II. EUROPEAN MONETARY UNION ............................................................................. 8 $+LVWRULF(YROXWLRQRI(08............................................................................................. 8 %6HFRQG6WDJHRI(08...................................................................................................... 11 &&KDQJHRYHUWRWKH6LQJOH&XUUHQF\............................................................ 12 1. Introduction of the Euro and Changeover Scenario .............................................. 12 2. EU Council Regulations ........................................................................................ 14 3. Euro as the Single Currency .................................................................................. 15 4. Issuance of Euros................................................................................................... 17 5. Rounding ............................................................................................................... 17 6. No Compulsion, No Prohibition............................................................................ 18 7. Euro and Foreign Exchange Markets .................................................................... 20 8. Bond Redenomination ........................................................................................... 21 9. Conversion of Organized Exchanges into Euro .................................................... 22 '&RQWLQXLW\RI&RQWUDFWV.................................................................................................. 22 1. Status of EU Regulations Outside the European Union........................................ 22 2. Performance of Obligations During the Transitional Period................................. 23 3. Performance of Obligations after the Transitional Period..................................... 24 4. Principle of Continuity of Contracts...................................................................... 24 5. Freedom of Contract.............................................................................................. 25 6. Netting ................................................................................................................... 25 ((50,, ............................................................................................................................ 25 )$GPLVVLRQRI$GGLWLRQDO0HPEHU6WDWHVWR(08........................................................... 26 III. GOVERNING LAW OF THE CONTRACT ............................................................... 28 $9DOLGLW\RI&KRLFHRI/DZ&ODXVHV ................................................................................. 28 %*RYHUQLQJ/DZLQ$EVHQFHRI&KRLFH/DZ&ODXVH ........................................................ 29 IV. CONCEPT OF MONEY .............................................................................................. 33 $1DWXUHRI0RQH\±6WDWHRU)HGHUDO/DZ"..................................................................... 33 %6WDWH7KHRU\RI0RQH\.................................................................................................... 35 1. Assignats and the French Revolution .................................................................... 36 2. U.S. Greenbacks and the American Civil War...................................................... 37 3. Confederate Dollars and the American Civil War................................................. 39 4. Conversion of the Puerto Rican Peso into the U.S. Dollar and Establishment of the Philippine Peso Following the Spanish-American War (1898).............................................................................. 42 5. Russian Rubles and the Bolshevik Revolution...................................................... 45 6. Conversion of the Mark into the Reichsmark in Weimar Germany...................... 49 7. Pound Sterling and the British Abandonment of the Gold Standard..................... 50 8. The Great Depression and the U.S. Departure from the Gold Standard ............... 51 D7KH*ROG&ODXVH&DVH ...................................................................................... 51 E,PSOLFDWLRQVRIWKH*ROG&ODXVH&DVHV............................................................. 57 iv F*ROG&ODXVH&DVHVDQG(08 ........................................................................... 58 9. Austro-German Anschluss (1938)......................................................................... 61 10. Japanese Military Currency Used in the Philippines During the Second World War ............................................................................ 62 11. Conversion of the German Reichsmark into the Deutsche Mark (1948)............................................................................ 64 12. Chinese Monetary Reforms (1933-55)................................................................ 65 13. The Canadian Dollar and the Collapse of Bretton Woods (1970)....................... 68 14. Exchange Control Regulations ............................................................................ 69 15. Principle of Monetary Nominalism ..................................................................... 70 16. Comity and the Act of State Doctrine ................................................................. 74 17. Summary.............................................................................................................. 78 &86&RQVWLWXWLRQDQGWKH6WDWH7KHRU\RI0RQH\ .......................................................... 80 '/HJLVODWLYH$GRSWLRQRI6WDWH7KHRU\8QLIRUP&RPPHUFLDO&RGH............................... 81 1. UCC Definition of Money..................................................................................... 81 2. Scope of UCC Definition of Money...................................................................... 83 3. The UCC Definition of Money and the Euro .......................................................
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