EILIS FERRAN is a reader in the Law Faculty, University of Cambidge, specialising in corporate and securities law. She was the Director of the Faculty's Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law. She is the author of Company Law and Corporate Finance (1999), and of various articles on corporate law, securities law and financial regulation and is an editor of the Journal of Corporate Law Studies. In 2000 she was a special adviser to the UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Financial Services and Market Bill, and more recently has advised the UK Department of Trade and Industry on the Company L...