This book studies the international monetary and financial system from a legal perspective. The new edition has been renamed to reflect the book's breadth of coverage, which includes an in-depth study of central banking, a fresh look at supervision, regulation and crisis management after the global financial crisis and updated material on the law of the European Central Bank (and its responses to the twin banking and sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone), Banking Union, the law of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and work undertaken by international standard-setters, in particular the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the Basel committee on Banking Supervision. The book is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on national developments, the second part deals with EU developments, and the third part examines international developments. There is a certain symmetry among the three parts of the book (which has been preserved in the second edition) each one of them commencing with a historical chapter, analyzing then the framework of the ‘monetary architecture’ and ending up with a consideration of the ‘financial architecture’ with regard to the functions of financial supervision (micro and macro) and surveillance, regulation, and crisis management, including lender of last resort and resolution.