Corporate governance around the world continues to develop rapidly and this new edition has been extensively rewritten to reflect these changes. The global financial crisis has led to a whole host of changes in corporate governance requirements, which are analysed by Bob Tricker.

The most authoritative, complete, and critical guide to corporate governance.

Shareholder inspection rights form an important tool for shareholder protection. They offer shareholders seeking information private access to specific books and records of the company that are otherwise not publicly available. While there has been a discourse on the topic in some jurisdictions such as Delaware (USA), it has not received scholarly treatment at an international level. This Research Handbook seeks to alter that, and signifies the first endeavor to engage in a comprehensive and comparative analysis of shareholder inspection.

This book undertakes unique case studies, including interviews with participants, as well as empirical analysis, of public and private enforcement of Australian securities laws addressing continuous disclosure. Enforcement of laws is crucial to effective regulation. Historically, enforcement was the province of a government regulator with significant discretion (public enforcement). However, more and more citizens are being expected to take action themselves (private enforcement). Consistent with regulatory pluralism, public and private enforcement exist in parallel, with the capacity to both help and hinder each other, and the achievement of the goals of enforcement in a range of areas of regulation. The rise of the shareholder class action in Australia, backed by litigation funding or lawyers, has given rise to enforcement overlapping with that of the government regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The ramifications of overlapping enforcement are explained based on detailed analysis. The analysis is further bolstered by the regulator's approach to enforcement changing from a compliance orientation to a “Why not litigate?” approach. The analysis and ramifications of the Australian case studies involve matters of regulatory theory and practice that apply across jurisdictions. The book will appeal to practitioners, regulators and academics interested in regulatory policy and enforcement, and the operation of regulators and class actions, including their interaction.

Rapid economic development has focused attention from around the world upon China's corporate governance regime-particularly as, during the past few years, some of China's companies, mainly large, state-owned companies, have been aggressively buying foreign businesses overseas. China's huge capital injection and aggressive foreign investments have raised increasing and deep concerns among the target countries' governments, their business communities, and the global public. It is clearly of great importance that the people's Republic of China's business-partner countries understand corporate governance of many Chinese state-owned companies calls for a closer look at China's corporate governance theory and practice. The corporate disclosure regime plays a critical role in this regard. This timely and highly informative book provides, for the first time, comprehensive research on corporate governance in China, with detailed attention to the formation and reform of its corporate disclosure laws and regulations. Among the many factors analyzed are the following: -the role of the government in the management of state-owned companies; -the legal and regulatory environment; -majority shareholders' infringement of listed companies' interests' -the increasing independence of the boards of directors; -the role of institutional investor; -the shareholding structure; -law enforcement and shareholders' legal actions; -unmonitored insiders' control of corporate affairs; -the external governance structure; and -the absence of fiduciary duty. The author describes the nature of the many breaches of disclosure laws and rules in the two decades or so of the history of China's securities market and the pressures within the relevant government agencies confronting the problem. As a detailed analysis of the Chinese corporate disclosure regime that has emerged during the period of China's economic transition since the 1990's, this incomparable book will be of great interest to legal researchers, policymakers, and legal practitioners working with business investments in China.

Now in its fourth edition, Principles of Contemporary Corporate Governance offers comprehensive coverage of the key topics and emerging themes in private sector corporate governance. It explains both the principles of corporate governance systems and their real-world application in an authoritative and engaging manner. This fully revised and updated text has four parts: basic concepts, board structures and company officers; corporate governance in Australia; corporate governance in international and global contexts; and shareholder activism and business ethics. The coverage of international contexts includes sections on the US, the UK, Canada, South Africa, the EU, the OECD, Germany, Japan, China and Indonesia, plus new sections on New Zealand and India. A new chapter on business ethics and corporate governance presents contemporary discussions on the topic and explores some of the broader legal issues. Principles of Contemporary Corporate Governance is an indispensable resource for business and law students, academic researchers and practitioners