Legal Aspects and Solutions to the Problematics of Repo Transactions. Summary of the Doctoral Thesis
Authors:   ,   Rīga Stradiņš University, Jukna Tatjana 
Published: January 2025

The aim of the doctoral thesis is to, through research on the civil law aspects surrounding repo transactions, establish a theoretical basis for comprehending and differentiating the civil aspects of repo transactions from other transactions structurally akin to repos. This involves elucidating the theoretical, civil law, and practical challenges and proposing conceptual solutions for the creation and enhancement of the legal framework. To accomplish the thesis's objective, specific legal aspects of repo transactions were examined, leading to proposals for advancing regulations in the Republic of Latvia. Recommendations were formulated for revising specific provisions of the Directive 2002/47/EK on Financial Collateral Arrangements and the Directive 2014/65/ES on Markets in Financial Instruments. As well as the theoretical basis was established for the conceptual development of civil law regulation concerning repo and other financial market’s transactions in the future. This study represents the pioneering research on the characteristics of repo transactions in the legal history of Latvia and potentially extends to Lithuania and Estonia. The research foundation of the thesis encompasses over 500 sources, including monographs, scientific literature, studies, normative acts, and court practice, spanning 11 languages such as English, Latvian, Russian, Spanish, Italian, French, etc. Additionally, unstructured expert interviews were conducted, and repo framework agreements employed in both international and Latvian practices were analysed. The thesis structure comprises an introduction, four main chapters with various subsections, a closing, conclusions and proposals, a list of references, and 33 appendices. The structure of the thesis has been chosen in order to present the problematics of repo transactions in a logical and sequential manner. In the introduction, the thesis establishes the relevance of the subject, articulates the study's aim and its associated tasks, defines the subject and object of the research, and outlines the scientific methods employed. The first chapter delves into the meaning of the word “repo” and explores the genesis of the repo transaction, encompassing an examination of repo-like constructions such as fiducia, pactum de retrovendendo, mohantra, cambrium and recambrium, belening-renversaals, along with the exploration of legal issues related to speculation and gambling, and entails an examination of the transaction's evolution in the 20-th century. In the second chapter of the thesis, the author scrutinizes the regulation of repo at the EU, civil, and business customs levels. Moving to Chapter 3, in the first subsection, the author explores civil law theories of repo, either substantiating or challenging the arguments within these theories. This involves identifying weaknesses in certain theories to delineate specific civil law aspects of repo in the second subsection. The fourth chapter focuses on repo transactions in Latvia. Here, the author conducts a retrospective review of these transactions, challenges the opinion expressed in Latvian legal doctrine asserting a repo transaction as atpakaļpirkuma līgums, and exploits the method of historical observation to analyse transaction practices in Latvia. She uses the empirical material obtained and reduces the text to a conceptual description of each element of a repo, to subsequently quantify the content of repo agreements used in practice, and to identify deviations and the causes of these deviations, and to make proposals to address the problematics. Through an examination of scientific sources, theoretical and empirical data, 43 conclusions in the form of theses, proposals, and recommendations, grouped into 17 categories of conclusions have been derived. These encompass the draft of a “Minimum Standard for Repo Agreements” and the classification of repo transactions among civil law transactions.
The Doctoral Thesis was developed at Rīga Stradiņš University, Latvia. Defence: at the public session of the Promotion Council of Law on 20 December 2024 at 13.00 in the Hippocrates Lecture Theatre, 16 Dzirciema Street, Rīgas Stradiņš University and remotely via online platform Zoom.
5.5 Law; Sub-Sector – Civil Law.
Keywords: repo transactions; repurchase; financial collateral; Civil Law aspects of repo; the legal theory of repo.