Insider Trading in UK Law

It was also to right to apply a wider rule that you cannot recover damage which is the consequence of your own criminal act, reflecting the idea that it is offensive to public notions of the fair distribution of resources that a claimant should be compensated (usually out of public funds) for the consequences of his own criminal conduct.

In assessing whether the public interest would be harmed in that way, it is necessary a) to consider the underlying purpose of the prohibition which has been transgressed and whether that purpose will be enhanced by denial of the claim, b) to consider any other relevant public policy on which the denial of the claim may have an impact and c) to consider whether denial of the claim would be a proportionate response to the illegality, bearing in mind that punishment is a matter for the criminal courts.

Having heard the competing contentions of the parties, and helpful submissions on behalf of the United States Government, we have inevitably formed tentative views on the likely outcome if the matter were to proceed before the magistrate.

I interject by way of brief technical excursus that a spread bet on listed shares is on analysis a contract for differences, based on movements in the quoted share price over a specified period. In the case of IG Index the client was required, as Mr Mirza told me, to deposit 15–20% of the initial share price and maintain a deposit to at least this level as the price moved. The level of the deposit meant that substantial gearing, of at least 5 times, could be achieved.

I doubt if it is possible to go further than to say that "necessary" has a meaning that lies somewhere between "indispensable" on the one hand, and "useful" or "expedient" on the other, and to leave it to the judge to decide towards which end of the scale of meaning he will place it on the facts of any particular case. The nearest paraphrase I can suggest is "really needed."

The principles of equal treatment, non-discrimination and transparency require a contracting authority that has adopted a decision-making procedure for assessing bids to comply with it once it has begun to do so. A different way of expressing the same principle is to state that a contracting authority that has set rules for that procedure must follow them, applying those rules in the same way to the different bidders.

The next matter of principle which is important is that where a security for costs up to a particular stage of proceedings has already been provided, a defendant who applies to increase the amount of security for the costs of that same stage in proceedings will generally have to justify a further order by reference to circumstances which did not exist or were not apparent at the time the order was made.