Book review: International Guide to Hedge Fund Regulation

At a time when regulation of hedge funds and hedge fund managers is under heavy discussion, a book laying out the rules is a handy reminder of what is currently possible.

The International Guide to Hedge Fund Regulation provides an overview of the laws governing the establishment and marketing of hedge funds in 20 major jurisdictions including the UK, US and offshore jurisdictions.

However, there are a few countries missing. There is no chapter on Gibraltar, although its competitor Malta does get a section. There is nothing on the Middle East or on the up-and-coming Cyprus. These jurisdictions could argue they would be as valid a topic to cover as, for example, the Mauritius or South Africa.

Each chapter is penned by a senior funds lawyer based in that country, going through the regulation. Several authors spend a few paragraphs discussing the potential impact of future rules on the industry. Overall the book is edited by Katten Muchin Rosenmann Cornish's London managing and senior partner Martin Cornish, and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert's financial services regulatory team head Ian Mason.

Cornish and Mason, who co-authored the chapter on the UK, introduce the book with a preface discussing the European commission's draft alternative investment fund managers directive. The preface goes through the various clauses of the directive as it stood in September 2009, when the book went to press.

Although this is a laudable piece of information provided by Mason and Cornish, they admit "it is difficult to say" what final form the regulation will take. They call on the EU, the US and other G20 members to work to draw up an international set of hedge fund regulatory standards.

A future edition of this book may have to take a very different format.

Cornish, M; Mason, I: International Guide to Hedge Fund Regulation (Bloomsbury Professional, 2009).