RESEARCH STRATEGY
1) In order to prepare the memo, you will need to find out whether
your client will be protected as a secured creditor. To answer the question,
find out:
a) Is a debenture in the
UK the same as in the US?
b) Will the client be protected
as a secured creditor in both countries?
An alternative to simply using search engines alone
is to use online dictionaries and glossaries.
Online Legal Dictionaries
Using the Google search engine, enter the
following search query:
legal dictionary
The search will give you links to many legal
dictionaries. Compare the definitions of the word debenture using
the following hits:
Bookmark the dictionary in which you find
the clearest definition.
The dictionaries listed above all state
that a debenture is an unsecured loan. However, these three dictionaries
include only US legal terms. As the issuer of the debentures operates
in both the US and the UK, you will need to find out if the position is
the same in both jurisdictions.
Using the Google search engine (www.google.com),
enter the following search query:
law terms site:uk
The site feature of Google allows
you to limit your search to particular websites or to websites registered
in a particular domain, e.g. .uk (for the United Kingdom),
.com (International, often US) and .gov
(Government), etc.
Among the first few hits returned you will
find the following link: Basic company law terminology | Business
Link .
Click on this link and follow the link to
Company law terminology (A-H) to find out whether
or not the client will be considered as a secured creditor in the UK.
Online Financial Dictionaries
Although the term debenture appears
in many legal dictionaries, it is actually a financial term.
Now compare the results of the following
two search queries using Google:
financial dictionary site:com
financial dictionary site:uk
Use one or more of the financial dictionaries
you find in order to find out what a debenture is, and whether
the client will be protected as a secure creditor. You might find some
of these financial dictionaries particularly useful:
Use the information to find the answers
to question 1.
Fast definitions
A quick way of finding several reliable
definitions at once is to type, e.g. define:debenture
into the Google search bar.
You can also search through many dictionaries
at the same time using the Onelook dictionary search engine. Onelook
(www.onelook.com) lists the dictionaries by type,
e.g. General, Business, Legal, etc.
iTools language tools (www.itools.com)
provides quick access to dictionary resources, translation tools,
etc. |
Answer
a) No. In the US, a debenture is an
unsecured bond that is backed by the issuer's general credit rather
than a specific lien.
In the UK, a debenture is a loan raised
by a company, paying a fixed rate of interest and secured on the
assets of the company.
b) In the UK, a debenture is secured
whereas in the US it is unsecured. This means that in the US, the
creditor does not have a specific claim over the debtor's assets
whereas the creditor does have a specific claim in the UK.
See the above links for further details. |
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