Hal S. Scott
President and Director

Hal S. Scott is the Nomura Professor and Director of the Program on International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School, where he has taught since 1975. He teaches courses on Capital Markets Regulation, International Finance, the Payment System, and Securities Regulation.

He has a B.A. from Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School, 1965), an M.A. from Stanford University in Political Science (1967), and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School (1972). In 1974-1975, before joining Harvard, he clerked for Justice Byron White.

The Program on International Financial Systems, founded in 1986, engages in a variety of research projects. Its latest report is Capital Adequacy Beyond Basel (Oxford University Press 2004), an examination of capital adequacy rules for banks, insurance companies and securities firms. The Program also organizes the annual invitation-only U.S.- Japan, U.S.- Europe, and U.S.-China Symposia on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century, attended by financial system leaders in the concerned countries. The Program also directs Socratic style dialogues among financial leaders on issues of current interest. In addition, the Program directs a concentration in International Finance for LLM students at Harvard Law School.

Professor Scott's books include the law school textbook International Finance: Transactions, Policy and Regulation (15th ed. Foundation Press 2008) and International Finance: Policy and Regulation (2nd ed. Sweet & Maxwell 2007). His recent articles include "Internationalization of Primary Public Securities Markets Revisited," in Capital Markets in the Age of the Euro: Cross-Border Transactions, Listed Companies and Regulation, eds. K Hopt, E. Wymeersch and G. Ferrarini (Kluwer 2002) and "International Finance: Rule Choices for Global Financial Markets," in Research Handbook in International Economic Law, eds. A. Guzman and A. Sykes (Elgar 2007).