News

• Seminar
  
  - Continuous Disclosure: Key Issues for Companies and Their Advisers - 16 July 2008 (Sydney) and 23 July 2008 (Melbourne)
   
• New book
  
  - Varieties of Capitalism, Corporate Governance and Employees
  
  
• Latest research reports
  
  - Corporate Regulators in Australia (1961- 2000):  From Companies' Registrars to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission
  
  - Peering Over the Ethical Precipice: Incorporation, Listing and the Ethical Responsibilities of Law Firms
  
   - Family Resemblances: The Family Controlled Company in Asia
  
  -  Unlovely and Unloved: Corporate Law Reform's Progeny
  
  - Why do Employees Participate in Employee Share Plans - A Conceptual Framework
  
  - A History of Company Law in Colonial Australia: Economic Development and Legal Evolution
  
  - Evaluating the Shareholder Primacy Theory: Evidence From a Survey of Australian Directors
  
  - Company Directors' Views Regarding Stakeholders
  
  - Seven: The Corporations Act, Corporate Governance, and Termination Payments to Senior Employees 
  
  - Share-Based Remuneration and Termination Payments to Company Directors: What are the Rules? 
    
  - ESOPs in Australia - the Taxation Law Framework
  
  - ESOPs in Australia - the Corporate Law Framework
  
  - Employee Share Ownership - a Review of the Literature
  
  - An Overview of Existing Data on Employee Share Ownership in Australia
  
  - Do Australian Institutional Investors Aim to Influence the Human Resource Practices of 
    Investee Companies?
   
  - Corporate Law Reform and Delisting in Australia
  
  - The Takeovers Panel - An Empirical Study
  
  - Enhancing Corporate Accountability through Contextual Ethical Exercises
  
  - Employee Share Ownership Schemes: Two Case Studies
  
  - Litigation by Shareholders and Directors: An Empirical Study of the Statutory Derivative
    Action
       
  - Union Shareholder Activism
  
  - Fifty Years of Managed Funds in Australia  
   
•  ASIC Honours Corporate Law Academics
  
  
  
  
  The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has named rooms in its new Victorian offices after Professor Ian Ramsay, Director of the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation at the University of Melbourne (pictured with ASIC Chairman, Mr Jeffrey Lucy) and Emeritus Professor Harold Ford, former Dean of the University of Melbourne Law School. The rooms are two of several meeting rooms at the recently-opened premises named after "prominent Victorians who have made a significant contribution to the life of ASIC or to corporate law, regulatory reform or business".
  
  For further information about the individuals who have had rooms named after them, click here 
  
   
• Media commentary
  
  - Centre members media comments on current issues
   
• Newspaper columns 
  
  
  - Article by Associate Professor Pamela Hanrahan on structural changes at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission
  
  - Article by Professor Ian Ramsay on the collapse of stockbrokers Opes Prime and the implications for investors and regulators of volatile markets
  
  - Article by Associate Professor Cally Jordan on the complexity of the Corporations Act
  
  - Article by Associate Professor Pamela Hanrahan on the business judgment rule
  
  - Article by Associate Professor Pamela Hanrahan on ASIC v Citigroup
  
  - Article by Associate Professor Pamela Hanrahan on Simpler Regulatory System Bill
  
  - Article by Professor Ian Ramsay on research study of reasons why companies delist from the  stock exchange
  
  - Article by Professor Ian Ramsay on Federal Court decision on shareholders as creditors
  
  - Article by Professor Ian Ramsay on Insider Trading
  
  - Article by Professor Ian Ramsay on Directors' Duties and Corporate Social Responsibilty
  
  - Article by Professor Ian Ramsay on ASIC v Vizard
  
  - Article by Professor Geof Stapledon on audit committees
  
  - Article by Associate Professor Pamela Hanrahan on financial service reform
  
  - Article by Professor Ian Ramsay on directors' duties in the Financial Review
  
  - Commentary in The Age on Professor Ian Ramsay's article  
  
   
• Professor Ian Ramsay reappointed to the Companies Auditors and Liquidators Disciplinary Board
  
  The Commonwealth Treasurer has announced that Professor Ian Ramsay has been reappointed to the Companies Auditors and Liquidators Disciplinary Board.
  
  - Treasurer's media release
   
• Establishment of the Audit Quality Review Board (of which Professor Ian Ramsay is a member)

            - "Accountants to face peer audit", The Australian Financial Review, 28 July 2006, page 60

            - Audit Quality Review Board media release

            - Australian Securities and Investments Commission media release 

            - PricewaterhouseCoopers media release
 
           - Speech by the Honourable Chris Pearce MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer 

• Establishment of the Federal Government's Personal Property Securities Consultative Group (of which Dr Paul Ali is a member)

• Establishment of the Chartered Secretaries Governance Professional of the Year Judging Committee (of which Professor Ian Ramsay is a member)
   
• Report by Professor Ian Ramsay for the Australian Communications and Media Authority on reform of the Authority's enforcement powers
  
  Communications Legislation Amendment (Enforcement Powers) Act 2006 which enacts the key recommendations in Professor Ramsay's report
  
  - Explanatory Memorandum to the Communications Legislation Amendment (Enforcement Powers) Bill 2006 
  
  - Parliamentary Library analysis of the Communications Legislation Amendment (Enforcement Powers) Bill 2006
  
  - House of Representatives Debate on the Communications Legislation Amendment (Enforcement Powers) Bill 2006 (10 October 2006)
  
  Earlier developments relating to the report
  
  - Government announcement of new enforcement powers based upon Professor Ramsay's report (July 2006)
  
  - Government announcement of public consultation regarding proposed reforms based upon Professor Ramsay's report (November 2005)
  
  - Media release of the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (November 2005)
  
  - Government issues paper outlining the proposed reforms (November 2005)
  
  - Professor Ramsay's report
  
  - Media commentary on the government announcement
     
• Public lecture by Professor Paul Davies 
  
  - Transcript of public lecture by Professor Paul Davies, London School of Economics and Political Science, 'Enlightened Shareholder Value and the New Responsibilities of Directors' 
    
• CCLSR members win Australian Research Council grants 
  
  On 9 November 2005, the Minister for Education, Science and Training announced the successful recipients of Australian Research Council grants. CCLSR members were successful in receiving grants for two projects:
  
  Ian Ramsay, Cameron Rider, Ann O'Connell and Richard Mitchell - Employee share ownership plans: current practice and regulatory reform
  
  Christine Parker and Vibeke Nielsen - The impact of ACCC enforcement action: evaluating the explanatory and normative power of responsive regulation and responsive law
  
• Corporate governance and regulation roundtable
  
   -The Age Newspaper Roundtable on corporate governance and regulation featuring Professor Ian Ramsay; Graeme Samuel, ACCC Chairman; Charles Macek, Company Director and Michael O'Sullivan, Australian Council of Superannuation Investors President 
   
• Latest books 
  
  - Funds Management in Australia: Officers' Duties and Liabilities (1st edition, 2007)
    (by Associate Professor Pamela Hanrahan)
  
  - Ford's Principles of Corporations Law (13th edition, 2007)
  (by Justice Robert Austin and Professor Ian Ramsay)
  
  - Commercial Applications of Company Law (8th edition, 2007)
  (by Associate Professor Pamela Hanrahan, Professor Ian Ramsay and Professor Geof Stapledon) 
  
  - Commercial Applications of Company Law in Singapore (2nd edition, 2006)
  (by Associate Professor Pamela Hanrahan, Professor Ian Ramsay, Professor Geof Stapleton, Victor Yeo and Joyce Lee)
  
  - Company Directors: Principles of Law and Corporate Governance (2005)
  (by Justice Robert Austin, Professor Harold Ford and Professor Ian Ramsay) 
            
• New corporate law judgments  
• Recent seminars and conferences
  
• Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation annual report
  
• Disclosure of fees in superannuation and other managed investments
  
  Report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services on the Corporations Amendment Regulations (March 2004) which draws upon the submission of Professor Ian Ramsay  
• Report for the Government on Independence of Auditors
  
  Australian Prudential Regulation Authority proposes new auditor independence requirements based on the Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (Audit Reform and Corporate Disclosure) Act 2004 (which enacts key recommendations in Professor Ramsay's report on auditor independence)
  
  - Governance for APRA-regulated institutions, Discussion Paper (May 2005)
  
  Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (Audit Reform and Corporate Disclosure) Act 2004 which enacts key recommendations in Professor Ramsay's report on auditor independence
  
  - Media release of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer
  - Media Release of the Parliamentary Joint Commitee on Corporations and Financial Services relating to the report on the Bill
  - Report of the Parliamentary Joint Commitee on Corporations and Financial Services on the Bill
  - Treasurer's first and second reading speech in the House of Representatives (4 December 2003)
  - Appearance of Professor Ian Ramsay before the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services in relation to its inquiry into the Bill (March 2004) - transcript of evidence
  
  
• Enactment of the Financial Services Reform Amendment Act 2003 to require dollar disclosure of fees as recommended in Professor Ramsay's report on disclosure of fees in managed investments
  
  -  Senate debate on the Financial Services Reform Bill 2003 (4 December 2003)
  -  Report of the Senate Economics Legislation Committee on the Financial Services Reform Amendment Bill 2003 and Certain Associated Regulations (December 2003)
   
• Report by Professor Ian Ramsay  for the Financial Planning Association on disclosure of fees by financial advisers
  
  - Financial Planning Association media release
  - Media commentary on appointment
  
  Financial Planning Association developments following consideration of Professor Ramsay's report
  
  - FPA proposes principles for managing conflicts of interest (April 2005)
  - FPA guide on rebates and commissions (November 2004)
  - FPA code of practice on soft dollar benefits (July 2004)
• Australian Securities and Investments Commission releases fee disclosure model based on Professor Ian Ramsay's report on disclosure of fees and charges in managed investments
  
  - ASIC media release and fee disclosure model
  - Media commentary on the fee disclosure model
  
• Release of report "Rebuilding Public Confidence in Financial Reporting" by the International Taskforce commissioned by the International Federation of Accountants (of which Professor Ian Ramsay was a member)
  
  - International Federation of Accountants media release
  - International Taskforce report
  - Media commentary on the report
  - Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales media release
  - Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and CPA Australia joint media release
• New Asian-Pacific Corporate Law and Securities Regulation Sites
• Media Commentary on Centre Activities
• New links to other sites of interest