Drawing on classes given at Sciences Po, this book sets out to reposition legal questions within a global perspective. It looks specifically at the historical and political context of France, in which public law is deeply anchored in national history, perhaps more than in any other country.

Since their invention in the 1980s, swaps have overturned the landscape of contemporary finance. Bankers were of course responsible for the development of this financial innovation, but so were legal scholars. This book reveals the legal aspect of financial globalization, which is both frequently overlooked and fundamentally crucial.