If the realm of the conflict of laws has been traditionally depicted as ‘a dismal swamp, filled with quaking quagmires, and inhabited by learned but eccentric professors who theorize about mysterious matters in a strange and incomprehensible jargon’, no less sophisticated has become nowadays the law of financial markets. In the latter, the multiplicity of actors, the heterogeneity of the legal situations and relationships which connect them one with the other and, not least, their geographical dispersion makes for a complexity which is only at par with the relevance they have gained in today's economy.

It can therefore appear a daunting task the one that Augustin Gridel has undertaken for his doctoral research, to analyse the realm of financial markets through the lens of the conflict of laws, thereby combining the subtle intricacies of these two highly technical fields. A daunting task, but a welcome one, whose results are presented in this book, that constitutes the crowning achievement of Dr. Gridel's long research and reflection [under the magisterium of Professor Louis D’Avout], offered in English version to the legal community of academics, private practitioners and public authorities.

The objective of Dr. Gridel's work, and one of its distinguishing features, is not to explore some specific aspects or area of the law of the financial markets, but rather to encompass the wider spectrum of legal relationships and situations which are established in the operations of those markets, and test the soundness of their regime when regarded under the conflict of laws perspective, offering proposals de lege ferenda, where appropriate.