This book provides an extensive and critical assessment of the EC's system of securities and investment-services market regulation or EC securities regulation. With the introduction of the Euro, the rapid evolution of EC securities markets and the adoption of the 1999 Financial Services Action Plan, completion of the single market in securities and investment services has emerged as a high profile priority at EC level. While the main planks of the legal framework of the single market in securities and investment services are now in place, the strains which the rapidly developing EC securities market is placing on this regime are also becoming apparent as EC capital markets deepen, stock exchanges link up, trading platforms develop, and retail investors, through the internet, are exposed to the wider EC marketplace. The object of this book is to consolidate and provide a critical assessment of this important body of law and its underlying policies and themes at a critical point in its development. While the book assesses how EC securities regulation has sought to construct a single market in securities and investment services, it also evaluates the substantive rules of the regime, including the EC issuer-disclosure regime, the prudential and protective rules applicable to investment-services providers and the securities-trading markets regime, as well as the relevant Treaty provisions and the case law of the Court of Justice. The text also deals with the most recent developments in the area, including the progress towards completion of the Financial Services Action Plan, the implications of the Lamfalussy law-making model and the review currently underway of the pivotal Investment Services Directive.