Hal Scott

Hal S. Scott is the Emeritus Nomura Professor of International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School (HLS), where he taught from 1975-2018. His HLS courses were on Capital Markets Regulation, International Finance, the Payment System and Securities Regulation. He is currently an adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government where he teaches Capital Market 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.

He is the Director of the Program on International Financial Systems (PIFS), founded in 1986, as part of Harvard Law School, which became independent in 2018. Besides doing research, the Program organizes the annual invitation-only U.S.-China, U.S.-Europe, and U.S.-Japan Symposia on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century, and special event roundtables. HLS is the non-financial sponsor or these events. In addition PIFS partners with Executive Education at HLS in offering executive education for financial regulators.

Professor Scott’s books include the law school textbook International Finance: Transactions, Policy and Regulation (23rd ed. Foundation Press 2020); Connectedness and Contagion (M.I.T. Press 2016) and The Global Financial Crisis (Foundation Press 2009). He is the author of numerous journal articles and op-ed pieces in leading newspapers.

Professor Scott is also the Director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, a bi-partisan non-profit organization organized in 2006, dedicated to enhancing the competitiveness of U.S. capital markets and ensuring the stability of the U.S. financial system via research and advocacy.

He is also an independent director of MEMX, the Members Exchange, and a member of the Market Monitoring Group of the Institute of International Finance. He is a past independent director of Lazard, Ltd. (2006-2016), a past President of the International Academy of Consumer and Commercial Law and a past Governor of the American Stock Exchange (2002-2005).

Areas of Interest

• Capital Markets Law and Regulation
• Financial Institutions