Sanam Saidova

Contact Details

Email:  Sanam Saidova

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Research Topic

Security Interests under the UNIDROIT Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment.

The main research questions are:

1. What are the purposes, policies and values underlying the UNIDROIT Convention? How is the Convention to be interpreted and applied?
2. How are the security interests to be defined by the Convention?
3. What are the prerequisites for the creation of security interests and other international interests under the Convention? Does the Convention allow the creation of the floating charge?
4. What are the aims and objectives of registration of the international interests in the International Registry established under the Convention? What does the process of registration involve? How effective is this procedure?
5. What are the Convention’s rules on setting the priorities among competing interests?
6. What remedies are available to the secured creditor in the case of the debtor’s default? Are they effective in practice? What is the relationship between the remedies available under the Convention and those available under the applicable domestic law?
7. Does the Convention provide an effective legal regime on security interests compared to its domestic counterparts? Has the Convention proved to be a successful international instrument on security interests? What are its future prospects?

The research explores and engages with writings on various aspects of the Convention. The research also draws heavily on the experience of some major legal systems, such as those of the United States and the United Kingdom. This comparative exercise serves several purposes. First, it helps identify a range of factual situations and legal problems that have not yet arisen but may well arise in the context of the Convention. Secondly, the comparative method also helps identify a range of possible solutions to various legal problems and triggers the discussion on whether these solutions are appropriate under the Convention in the light of its underlying purposes, principles and structure. Thirdly, the body of knowledge accumulated in the context of domestic legal systems facilitates the development of an appropriate theoretical and conceptual framework for analysing and understanding the Convention. Finally, testing the Convention against the experience of some major legal systems highlights the strengths and weaknesses of all the regimes and advances knowledge on what legal regime is most appropriate for governing international security interests.   

Some of the main findings are as follows:

1. The Convention has created a truly international regime on international security interests with special methods of its interpretation and application.
2. While some of the Convention’s rules resemble those existing in domestic laws, it has, by and large, created a new and distinct approach to the governing of international security interests.
3. A unique International Registry has been set up under the framework of the Convention.
4. The creation of the floating charge is possible under the existing scheme.
5. The system of rules and principles on creation, registration, priority and remedies is generally effective and capable of achieving the Convention’s aims and objectives.

 

Research Supervisor

Dr Sandra Frisby

 

Primary Funding Source

The School of Law Graduate Teaching Assistantship

 

Academic Qualifications

 

Publications