Professor Sheelagh McCracken

Profile
Publications

Profile

Degrees

MA Camb PhD Sydney Cert H.Ed UNSW

Courses Taught

Introduction to Property and Commercial Law (undergraduate)
Equity and Financial Risk Allocation (undergraduate)
Secured Transactions in Commercial Law (undergraduate)
Fundamentals of Finance Law (postgraduate)
Personal Property Securities (postgraduate)
Fundamentals of Commercial Law (postgraduate)
Financial Risk Allocation in Equity (postgraduate)

Research Interests

Finance law
Commercial law
Personal property securities law

Brief Biographical Details

Dr Sheelagh McCracken is Professor of Finance Law at Sydney Law School. Prior to her current appointment and working on a part-time basis, she was an Associate Professor with Macquarie University’s Master of Applied Finance program, teaching finance law throughout Australia and in Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo. She completed her undergraduate law degree at the University of Cambridge and qualified and practised as a commercial solicitor with a major commercial law firm in the City of London. She obtained her PhD from the University of Sydney, which was subsequently published in London as The Banker’s Remedy of Set-Off and is now in its third edition. Other major publications include co-authorship of a standard text, Everett & McCracken's Banking and Financial Institutions Law, of which the 8th edition was published in early 2013. She writes and speaks regularly on finance law, including personal property securities law, and has consulted to a number of major Australian commercial law firms as well as other overseas and domestic organisations.

Publications

Books

McCracken, S, Bird, J, Stumbles, J and Tolhurst, G, Everett & McCracken's Banking and Financial Institutions Law (8th ed) Thomson Reuters LawBook Co: Sydney (2013)
McCracken, S, The Banker’s Remedy of Set-Off (3rd edition), Bloomsbury Professional: London (2010)
McCracken, S & Everett, A, Everett & McCracken’s Banking and Financial Institutions Law (7th ed), Thomson Reuters Law Book Co: Sydney (2009)
McCracken, S & Everett, A, Everett & McCracken’s Banking and Financial Institutions Law (6th ed), Law Book Co: Sydney (2004)
McCracken, S, Banking and Financial Institutions Law (5th ed), Law Book Co: Sydney (2001)
McCracken, S, The Banker’s Remedy of Set-Off (2nd ed), Butterworths: London (1998)
McCracken, S & Everett, D, Finance and Security Law: Cases and Materials, Butterworths: Sydney (1998)
Sheedy, E & McCracken, S (eds), Derivatives: The Risks that Remain, Allen & Unwin: Sydney (1997)
Everett, D & McCracken, S, Banking and Financial Institutions Law (4th ed), LBC Information Services: Sydney (1997)
McCracken, S, The Banker’s Remedy of Set-Off, Butterworths: London (1993)
McCracken, S, Banking and Finance in Singapore: The Legal Framework, Longman: Singapore (1993)
Everett, D & McCracken, S, Banking and Financial Institutions Law (3rd ed), Serendip Publications: Wamberal, NSW (1992)
Everett, D & McCracken, S, Financial Institutions Law (2nd ed), Serendip Publications: Wamberal, NSW (1990)
McCracken, S, Booming Economies of SE Asia by A.Guillouet (co-translator from French), Longman: Singapore (1990)
Everett, D & McCracken, S, Financial Institutions Law (1st ed), Serendip Publications: Wamberal, NSW (1987)
Kinder, P & McCracken, S, Connaissance du Droit Anglais, Librairie Generale de Droit et de Jurisprudence: Paris (1980)

Book Chapters and Contributions

McCracken, S, 'Security within the scope of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA)' in
McCracken, S, Bird, J, Stumbles, J and Tolhurst, G, Everett & McCracken's Banking and Financial Institutions Law (8th ed) Thomson Reuters LawBook Co: Sydney (2013), Chapter 13
McCracken, S (co-author), ‘Guarantees and Indemnities’ in Halsbury’s Laws of Australia (5th edition), LexisNexis: Australia (2012)
Jones, A & McCracken, S, ‘Crossing the boundary between finance and law: The collaborative problematisation of professional learning in a postgraduate classroom’ in C Candlin & S Sarangi (eds), Handbook of Communication in Organisations and Professions, De Grutyer Mouton: Berlin (2011) 499-518
McCracken, S, Contributor to the Concise Australian Legal Dictionary (4th ed), LexisNexis: Australia (2011) (Personal Property; Personal Property Securities; Guarantees and Indemnities)
McCracken, S & Boxall, A, ‘Guarantees and Indemnities’ in Halsbury's Laws of Australia (3rd edition), Butterworths: Sydney (2004)
McCracken, S & Boxall, A, ‘Guarantees and Indemnities’ in Halsbury's Laws of Australia (2nd edition), Butterworths: Sydney (2000)
McCracken, S, ‘Confronting the Legal Dimension’ in Sheedy & McCracken (eds), Derivatives: The Risks that Remain, Allen & Unwin: Sydney (1997) 155-193
McCracken, S & Boxall, A, ‘Guarantees and Indemnities’ in Halsbury's Laws of Australia, Butterworths: Sydney (1994)

Refereed Journal Articles

McCracken, S, 'The Personal Property Security Interest: Identifying Some Essential Attributes' Law in Context (forthcoming, 2013)
McCracken, S, 'Getting to grips with the reforms to Personal Property Securities law' (2011) 25(3) Commercial Law Quarterly 3-11
McCracken, S, ‘Conceptualising the Rights of a Lessee under the Personal Property Securities Regime: the Challenge of “New Learning” for Australian lawyers’ (2011) 34(2) UNSWLJ 547 (Thematic Issue: Personal Property Securities Reform and Beyond)
McCracken, S, ‘Shareholder creditors: further risk for directors of corporate trustees?’ (2008) 19 Journal of Banking and Finance Law and Practice 114-129
McCracken, S, ‘Due Diligence: book review’ (1996) 70 Australian Law Journal 576
McCracken, S, ‘Restrictions on the availability of listed shares as security’ (1994) Journal of Banking and Finance Law and Practice 317
McCracken, S, ‘The distinction between combination and set-off: problems of terminology and substance under the banking contract’ (1994) Journal of International Banking Law 68
McCracken, S, ‘Security over shares: recent Singapore decisions’ (1993) 4 Journal of Banking and Finance Law and Practice 232
McCracken, S, ‘Assume a virtue if you have it not’ (1993) 4 Journal of Banking and Finance Law and Practice 314
McCracken, S, ‘When is an overdraft repayable?’ (co-author) (1992) 3 Journal of Banking and Finance Law and Practice 314
McCracken, S, ‘The equitable mortgagee and the exercise of a power of sale over shares in a proprietary company’ (1990) I Journal of Banking and Finance Law and Practice 304

Non-Refereed Articles

McCracken,S, ‘Combination of accounts: a contrast in banker-customer expectations’ (2010) 25 Butterworths Corporation Law Bulletin 825
McCracken, S, ‘When should a creditor disclose to a guarantor?’ (1995) 11 Banking Law Bulletin 9
McCracken, S, ‘Judicial orders for sale: an expanded role? (1994) 10 Banking Law Bulletin 87
McCracken, S, ‘Cheque guarantee cards’ (1993) 9 Banking Law Bulletin 37
McCracken, S, ‘Forced Sale’ (1993) 9 Banking Law Bulletin 1
McCracken, S, ‘Enforcing mortgages and charges’ College of Law Sydney (1987)
Various contributions to Faute et Lien de Causalité dans la Responsibilité Délictuelle, Institut de Droit Comparé de Paris (1983)
Various contributions to Définition et Domaine de la Responsibilité Contractuelle, Institut de Droit Comparé de Paris (1980)

Published Conference Papers

Jones A & McCracken, S, ‘Teaching the Discourse of Legal Risk to Finance Professionals: Foundations for a Linguistically Scaffolded Curriculum’ published in Wilkinson R & Zegers V, Researching Content and Language Integration in Higher Education, conference proceedings of the International Conference on Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education, Universiteit Maastricht, Netherlands (2007) 122-136

Conference and Other Presentations and Academic Seminars

McCracken, S, 'Personal Property Securities: some topical issues on priority of security interests', presented as part of the Ross Parsons Commercial Law Seminar Series 2013, Sydney Law School, 14 March 2013
McCracken, S, 'Personal Property Securities Legislation: Analysing the New Lexicon', presented at an international conference on Personal Property Security Law: Local and Global Perspectives, Adelaide Law School, 20-21 February 2013
McCracken, S, ‘Personal Property Securities Legislation: An Opportunity for Harmonisation of Commercial Law in Asia?’, presented at a workshop on ‘Commercial Law Reform in Asia’, Sydney Law School, 3 August 2012
McCracken, S, ‘PPS legislation: some conceptual issues under the Australian Act’, presented at a Workshop on Personal Property Securities, Sydney Law School, Sydney, 6 June 2012
McCracken, S, ‘Personal Property Securities Legislation: Striving for ‘Perfection’, presented as an invited plenary speaker at the Specialist Accreditation Conference, Business and Property Law, Terrigal, 1 June 2012
McCracken, S, ‘Grappling with new concepts under personal property securities legislation: Possession as a source of security rights’, presented as an invited speaker at the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) Regional Law Conference, Sydney, 22 April 2012
McCracken, S, ‘Personal Property Securities: A priority-based approach’, presented as an invited speaker at the Judicial Education Workshop of the Federal Court of Australia, Adelaide, 30 March 2012
McCracken, S, 'The Personal Property Security Interest: idenitfying some essential attributes' presented as Invited Speaker at the inaugural Banking and Finance Law and Regulation Workshop, Faculty of Law and Management, La Trobe University, Melbourne, 16 December 2011
McCracken, S, 'Commercial Transactions through the lens of PPSA' presented as Invited Speaker to the Turnaround Management Association, Sydney, 9 November 2011
McCracken, S, 'PPSA: how far does it reach?' presented at ''PPSA: Practical perspectives for practitioners', a Commercial Law Association half-day seminar, Sydney 26 August 2011
McCracken S, ‘Equity’s role in allocating risk: satisfying or defying commercial expectations?’ presented as an invited speaker at the Opening Plenary of the Banking and Financial Services Law Association Annual Conference: Rebuilding, Queensland, 4-6 August 2011
McCracken, S, ‘Getting to Grips with the Reforms to Personal Property Securities Law’ presented at the Specialist Accreditation Business and Property Law Conference, Wollongong, 27th May 2011
McCracken, S, ‘Exercising a Self-Help Remedy in Finance: is it necessarily helping yourself?’ presented at the Distinguished Scholar Lectures Series, Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, 26 October 2010
McCracken, S, 'Managing Legal Risk in Financial Transactions: Lessons from the Australian Securities Lending Markets' presented at the 2nd ANJel Australian/Japan Business Law seminar, Tokyo, Japan, 13 February 2010
McCracken, S, ‘Set-off as a security device’ presented as an invited speaker at the Banking and Financial Services Law Association Annual Conference on ‘Crumble in the Jungle: lessons from the Crunch’, Queensland, 31 July-1 August 2009
McCracken, S, ‘Shareholders as creditors: further risk for directors of corporate trustees?’ presented as a speaker on the panel at the Corporate Law Teachers Association Annual Conference on ‘Securities Class Actions, Creditors Rights and Enhanced Corporate Governance: The Dawn of a New Age?’, Sydney, 4 February 2008
Jones A & McCracken, S, ‘Teaching the Discourse of Legal Risk to Finance Professionals’ presented at ‘Diversity and Community in Applied Linguistics: Interface, Interpretation, Interdisciplinarit’ International Conference, Macquarie University, Sydney, 22 September 2006
Jones A &McCracken, S, ‘Teaching the Discourse of Legal Risk to Finance Professionals: Integrated learning for postgraduate students’ presented at Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education (ICLHE) International Conference held in Maastricht, The Netherlands, 29 June 2006
McCracken, S, ‘Confronting the Legal Dimension’ presented at “The Risks that Remain”, a conference of the Australian Financial Markets Association on derivatives, Sydney, 29 April 1998
McCracken, S, ‘The Remedy of Set-Off: Enforcing Rights and Reducing Costs in Cross-Border Transactions’ presented at the International Australia-Singapore Forum, Sydney, 10-12 December 1997

Professional Seminars

'PPSA: an exercise in balancing interests', 13 October 2011
‘Personal Property Securities Legislation: A Change in Legal Mindset’, 28 September 2011
‘Enforcing an effective PPSI’, 20 July 2011, 16 September 2011, 27 September 2011
'Dealing with competing security interests', 22 September 2011
‘Identifying an effective "PPSI"’, 6 July 2011, 19 August 2011, 15 September 2011
'PPSA: some ''central concepts''', 25 August 2011
‘PPSA: The "Threshold" Question', 11 August 2011
‘Security Interests pre-PPSA: will time now ‘dull the distinctions’? ‘, 21 July 2011
'Personal Property Securities: Coming to Terms with the New Regime’, 17 June 2011
‘Assessing the Reach of the PPSI’, 30 March 2011
‘Enforcing the PPSI’, 30 March 2011
‘An (academic) introduction to analysing syndication and other financing structures – identifying relationships and anticipating legal risk’, 17 March 2011
'Ranking the “PPSI”', 24 February 2011
'Building a conceptual framework for the “PPSI”', 21 February 2011
'The “PPSI”: the change from form to substance’, 14 February 2011
'The Equitable Lien: Security Interest or Part of a Scheme of Adjustment', 11 November 2010
'Contribution: ''concept; not detail''', 9 September 2010
‘Defining the Role of Set-Off in Finance Transactions’, 27 August 2009
‘Dealing with frustrating events’, 28 May 2009
‘Wrong assumptions: disappointed expectations or frustrated contracts?’, 30 April 2009
‘Recharacterisation risk: questions raised by Beconwood Securities Pty Ltd v ANZ Banking Group Ltd (2008) FCA 594’, 20 November 2008
‘Conferring authority (2): what happens when it’s not there?’, 16 October 2008
‘Conferring authority: solid ground or shifting sands?’, 18 September 2008
‘Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) s 563C: false comfort?’, 21 August 2008
‘Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) Section 197:is the balance it offers between creditor protection and directors’ liability appropriate in the finance sector?’, 18 October 2007
‘The new UCP 600: an overview’, 30 August 2007
‘OBG Ltd v Allan – a useful reminder of the potential role of economic (and some other) torts in finance law’, 21 June 2007
‘When does a loan become a trust rather than a debt relationship? – the rule in Quistclose’s Case’, 26 April 2007
‘Marshalling: An Analysis’, 15 March 2007
‘Signing without reading: when is a signature conclusive? An analysis of the rule in L’Estrange v Graucob and its continuing application in modern finance transactions’, 28 September 2006
‘Floating charges and subsequent securities at common law: A challenging, but ultimately questionable, exercise in analysis’, 17 August 2006
‘'Theodore v Mistford: Application of settled principle or new development?’, 18 April 2006
‘British Eagle 30 years on: Have its wings been clipped in Australia’, 15 September 2005)
‘Licences: personal entitlements or property?’, 19 May 2005
‘Helping oneself: can a secured creditor sell to itself?’, 6 June 2002
‘Administrators and Financiers – impact and implications of the statutory compromise’, 1 November 2001
‘From negotiation to agreement – when does it happen?’, 6 September 2001
‘Transfer of funds – transfer of property?’, 2 August 2001
‘Set-Off in Insolvency in English Law under the Insolvency Act 1986 (Eng)’, 15 November 2000 and 13 November 2000
‘The Trust as a Security Mechanism- the Associated Alloys Case’, 1 June 2000
‘The Guarantor’s Right of Contribution’, 6 April 2000
‘A professional’s duty of confidentiality to former clients’, 2 December 1999
‘An equitable duty of care?’, 27 October 1999
‘Creditors: outsiders or part of the body corporate?’, 9 September 1999
‘Assignments in breach of a prohibition’, 24 June 1999
‘Section 260A-Financial Assistance’, 29 April 1999
‘Set-Off in Insolvency in English Law under the Insolvency Act 1986 (Eng)’, 22 October 1998 and 14 October 1998
‘Garcia: the High Court decision on guarantees by spouses’, 3 September 1998
‘When might a director assume personal liability for advice given by the company?’, 6 August 1998
‘When can the corporate veil of a special purpose vehicle be lifted?’, 18 June 1998
‘When does commercial pressure become economic duress?’, 4 June 1998
‘Can a financier be guilty of insider trading?’, 19 March 1998
‘Charges over deposits’, 20 November 1997
‘Structuring syndications: Part 2’, 23 October 1997
‘Structuring syndications: Part 1’, 18 September 1997
‘Set-Off in Insolvency in English Law under the Insolvency Act 1986 (Eng)’, 31 July 1997
‘A professional’s duty of care’, July 1997
‘The scope of contractual set-off’, March 1997
‘Structuring subordinations’, 1997

Unpublished Papers, Notes

McCracken, S, ‘Can a financier be guilty of insider trading?’ Mallesons, Stephen Jaques Banking Law Update (1997)
McCracken, S, ‘The Remedy of Set-Off: enforcing rights and reducing costs in cross-border transactions’ (Conference paper, delivered at the International Australia-Singapore Forum in Sydney) (1997)
McCracken, S, Submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission on the role of set-off in response to its inquiry on cross-border transactions. (Proposal was accepted by the ALRC in its Report on Legal Risk in International Transactions Report No 80 (1996)). See also NSW Law Reform Commission Discussion Paper Set-Off No 40 1998.
McCracken, S, ‘Bankrupts in Singapore: a case for automatic discharge’ (commissioned paper) (1994)
McCracken, S, ‘The Concept of a Deemed Market Value under the Singapore Land Acquisition Act’ (commissioned paper) (1994)
McCracken, S, ‘Teaching Business Ethics’ (seminar paper delivered to the Department of Business Law, Macquarie University) (1994)

The University of Sydney - Sydney Law School

Professor Sheelagh McCracken

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