Past Conferences
This page contains information about CLTA conferences from 2010. For conferences prior to 2010, click here.
2022 SCoLA Conference
Re: The Corporation
Re-Thinking, Re-Forming, Re-Imagining
University of the Sunshine Coast
3rd to 5th July 2022
We are very pleased to announce the 2022 conference of the Society. The conference will be hosted by the School of Law and Society, University of the Sunshine Coast from Sunday 3rd to Tuesday 5th July 2022.
The conference theme is “Re: The Corporation – Re-Thinking, Re-Forming, Re-Imagining” and it will be run in hybrid mode, allowing for both in-person and online participation. Further information can be found at the conference website: https://www.usc.edu.au/scola2022/
2021 CLTA Conference
Sydney Law School, The University of Sydney
7th February 2021 – 9th February 2021
Sydney Law School invites you to join us at the annual Corporate Law Teachers Association conference. The conference will involve a hybrid offering of online participation (through Zoom) for those who can’t attend in person due to COVID restrictions, and in-person attendance for those who can attend (NSW Government health guidelines permitting). Attendees may register either for online or in-person attendance. All sessions will offer online and in person participation for attendees and speakers. The conference will be held at the University of Sydney’s historic Camperdown campus, close to the southern edge of Sydney’s CBD and will be hosted by the Ross Parsons Centre for Commercial, Corporate and Taxation Law at Sydney Law School.
Please note: non-NSW residents are permitted to register for in-person attendance. There are currently no out of state travel restrictions in NSW and unless the health situation changes this means that conference attendees can be in person, even if they are not NSW residents.
CONFERENCE THEME
Thirty Years of Corporate Law: Still Fit for Purpose?
The 2021 conference marks the 30th anniversary of the Association. The conference theme invites participants to reflect on the principles of corporate law and how they have developed over the past 30 years. 2021 also marks the 20th anniversary of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the introduction of the national system for regulating corporate law in Australia.
The past 30 years have seen major structural reform in corporate law, both in Australia and New Zealand and across the Asia-Pacific. Multiple jurisdictions have completely rewritten their corporate statutes, including Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, South Africa and the UK. Australia’s corporate law framework retains a large and complex omnibus statute, with the corporate regulator ASIC having a regulatory remit far broader than other corporate and securities regulators around the world. Other jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific have taken different approaches with multiple statutes and regulators.
This conference asks whether the current corporate law framework remains fit for purpose? What have we learnt from the past 3 decades? What has worked, what hasn’t worked? What can we learn from corporate law reforms in other jurisdictions?
Potential themes could include:
- The role and performance of modern corporate and/or securities regulators
- Implications of COVID-19 reforms on corporate law and the law reform process
- Implications of climate change on corporate law and the law reform process
- Corporate criminal liability in light of the ALRC’s 2020 report
- Individual and corporate liability
- Shareholder ‘activism’
- Rethinking enforcement of corporate laws
- Reassessing prior law reforms
- The Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) in its historical context
- Rethinking federal corporate regulation in Australia
Comparative papers are also welcome to evaluate the operation of corporate law through a global lens.
Conference Highlights
Our keynote speaker is Dr Robert Austin. Dr Austin is a barrister at Level 22 chambers in Sydney. Dr Austin is Challis Lecturer in Corporate Law at The University of Sydney, where he has taught for over 50 years. Dr Austin is a former Head of the Department of Law at The University of Sydney and a former Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, as well as the co-author of several leading texts including Ford, Austin and Ramsay’s Principles of Corporations Law.
Plenary panel discussion on the scholarship of former CLTA presidents Professor Peta Spender and Professor Stephen Bottomley.
Plenary panel featuring the life members of the Association, Professors John Farrar, Paul Redmond, Ian Ramsay and Jennifer Hill discussing the past 30 years of corporate law.
2020 CLTA Conference
20/20 Hindsight: Reflections on Perceptions of Trust in Corporations
2 – 4 February 2020
Department of Business Law and Taxation
Monash Business School
Monash University
Melbourne, Australia
The 2020 conference was held at an interesting time. Much of Eastern Australia had just experienced an unusually intense bushfire season, and Australia was beginning to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these difficulties over 100 delegates attended the 2020 conference.
The conference theme invited participants to reflect on the reasons why a significant proportion of the population does not trust business; and by implication the corporate entities and the directors and officers that control those businesses. The conference focused on the changes to organisational and governance arrangements and regulatory regimes that had (recently) been introduced or could be introduced to build trust. The conference was convened by Professor Michelle Welsh, Dr Vivien Chen, and Dr Michael Duffy.
The plenary programme included keynote addresses from Professor Lorraine Talbot from the University of Birmingham, and Professor Benjamin Richardson from the University of Tasmania. A plenary panel comprised of Bob Santamaria, former Group General Counsel, ANZ Bank; Heather Loewenthal, Partner Governance, Regulation and Conduct, Deloitte; and Marie McDonald, Non-executive Director of CSL, Nanosonics and Nufarm discussed the impact of the Royal Commission on Corporate Boards, Corporate Governance and Corporate Culture. The panel was chaired by Professor Jennifer Hill.
A copy of the final program can be found here and abstracts can be found here.
2019 CLTA Conference
Possible Futures for the Company and for Corporate Law
3 – 5 February 2019
Auckland Law School
University of Auckland
New Zealand
In 2019, for the first time the Auckland Law School from the University of Auckland hosted the CLTA conference in New Zealand. The annual 3 day conference took place from Sunday 3 to Tuesday 5 February. Professor Susan Watson was the convenor. There were around 70 delegates that attended from Australia, New Zealand and further afield. The theme of the 2019 conference was Possible Futures for the Company and Company Law.
The plenary programme included a keynote address from Professor Luca Enriques of Oxford University, a keynote address from Justice Susan Glazebrook, a teaching session on the longitudinal study of law students carried out at Canterbury University led by Professor Lynne Taylor and Associate Professor John Caldwell, and a Panel convened by Brian Tunui on Maori Corporate Governance. There were also five parallel sessions over three days with papers from attending delegates.
A copy of the final conference program can be found here.
2018 CLTA Conference
The La Trobe Law School hosted the Corporate Law Teachers Association (CLTA) in 2018.
Dates: Sunday 11 February – Wednesday 13 February.
Location: La Trobe University City Campus, 36 Collins Street Melbourne.
The 65 registrants came from the UK, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and India as well as all States and Territories of Australia.
Conference Theme
Let’s Make Corporate Law Great Again!
Corporate Law has not always been on the forefront of people’s mind. In 2018, we wanted to bring researchers together who are passionate about changing this trend. It was time to make corporate law great again!
What can we speak about when creating new opportunities for corporate teachers and lawyers everywhere?
| Let’s | Who are we today to influence corporate law in this way? Is there any inhibition on our work? Do we want to make it great? |
| Make | How does research in corporate law impact on corporate law? Is it rewarded? Should it be? |
| Corporate Law | What is corporate law? Of what is it comprised? What areas need to be reformed to be great? |
| Great | What does ‘great’ mean? Perhaps we mean ‘grate’. How do we evaluate the law and changes in the law? What is corporate law’s function in society? |
| Again! | Was it ever great? If so, what happened to make it great then? What happened to make it not so great? |
Key Note Speakers
Professor Paddy Ireland:
Is corporate law really about enterprise and its functional needs, as traditional presentations of the discipline suggest? Paddy Ireland suggests not, arguing that it is better understood as a historical construct arising out of the rise of joint stock companies and the needs of passive rentier investors. This, he suggests, would enable corporate law scholars and students to make better sense not only of corporate law’s peculiarities, but of ‘financialization’, contemporary capitalism, and the continuing shareholder/stakeholder debates
Professor Charles M Yablon
“Dynamic” economic models that focus on innovation and economic growth pose a challenge to traditional “static” models of corporate law which emphasize efficient use of existing resources. Accordingly, the greatest danger current corporate law and corporate finance pose to the innovation process is neither investor activism nor managerial inefficiency, but rather conformity of viewpoint within the financial community. Viewing debates around this dichotomy from the perspective of innovation leads to a caution against overgeneralization and a recognition that innovation and growth will be best served if unusual investing activity is considered on a case by case basis, with a nuanced set of rules that reflects different levels of deference to managerial discretion in different settings.
Plenary Workshop
This was an interactive working session, coordinated by Rosemary Langford from the University of Melbourne. Panel members will include Paddy Ireland and Charles Yablon (our plenary speakers) and Jean du Plessis. The session will present some of the problems with the current scheme of directors’ duties (particularly the clash between statutory and general law duties) and brainstorm/seek comments on the way to resolve these (possibly by codification).
Teaching Session
This session was focussed on how people are responding to the imperatives of University teaching and learning reforms: what people are doing when they reform their offerings in line with University suggestions/requirements. Examples are flipped classrooms, blended learning, digital uplift and so forth. It is not designed to be a critical session, rather a sharing of information, techniques, responses and outcomes.
Paper abstracts
Click here for Paper abstracts.
Conference Sponsors
The CLTA 208 conference was sponsored by:
- The Governance Institute of Australia
- Cambridge University Press
- LexisNexis Butterworths
- Oxford University Press
- Thomson Reuters
- Wiley
2017 CLTA Conference
The Griffith Business School’s Accounting, Finance & Economics Department and the Griffith Law School, hosted the Corporate Law Teachers Association’s (CLTA) annual conference in 2017.
Date: Sunday 5 February 2017 to Tuesday 7 February 2017
Location: Griffith University’s Gold Coast Campus (Building G42), Parklands Drive Southport (campus map and campus visitor parking).
Conference Theme
“Companies that embrace innovation, that are agile and prepared to approach change confidently and with a sense of optimism are more competitive, more able to grow market share and more likely to increase their employment. More jobs, more growth – that is the focus of my government,”
(Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the launch of the National Innovation and Science Agenda 7th December, 2015.)
As Governments world-wide focus on innovation to drive economic growth and prosperity, the need for adequate risk management, transparency and accountability has never been greater.
The theme for the 2017 CLTA Conference is “Agile Corporate Law: CSR, Innovation & Environment”. The 2017 conference theme focuses on the challenges facing corporate law in responding to an agile and innovative corporate culture, and the impact this may have on ensuring a sustainable future for society both domestically and internationally.
Apart from the conference theme, participants may also consider the following streams for their conference paper:
- Corporate regulation and enforcement;
- Securities and financial services regulation;
- Corporate Governance (Directors’ Duties, Stakeholder and Shareholder Issues);
- Corporate ethics and social responsibility;
- Comparative corporate law;
- International or historical perspectives on Corporate and Insolvency Law;
- Corporate law reform measures.
Our keynote speaker, Professor Sally Wheeler, Head of Law, Queen’s University Belfast Ireland (previously at Birbeck & University of Leeds), will open the conference. The following day a panel of speakers will present views on “What is in need of innovation within Australian Corporate Law?”
For copies of conference papers and abstracts see: Abstracts Papers Presentations
2016 CLTA Conference
Photos from the 2016 CLTA conference can be seen here.
Enduring Issues in, and Reflections on, Corporate Law and Policy over the Past 25 Years
In 2016 The University of NSW Australia (UNSW) School of Taxation & Business Law, Sydney Australia, hosted the Corporate Law Teachers Association’s (CLTA) annual conference in Sydney from 31 January to 2 February.
Conference Theme
In recognition of the 25th anniversary milestone of the CLTA in 2016, the theme was designed to capture the legal and policy challenges that corporate law has confronted over that period, at a domestic and international level.
Keynote Speaker
The keynote speakers was Professor Paul Redmond, Sir Gerard Brennan Professor of Law at the University of Technology Sydney, Emeritus Professor and former Dean of Law at University of New South Wales. Professor Redmond is also the inaugural president of the Corporate Law Teachers Association and was instrumental in establishing the association in 1991.
A copy of the final conference program can be found here.
Keynote Speech
View the keynote speech by Emeritus Professor Paul Redmond, Foundation President of the CLTA, on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary celebrated at the University of New South Wales on 1 February 2016 – hosted by the School of Taxation and Business Law and convened by A/Professor Anil Hargovan (UNSW).
Panel Discussion
Podcast link of commentary by distinguished academic panel on the scholarship and contribution of Emeritus Professor Paul Redmond to the corporate law discipline. Panellists are: Professor Ian Ramsay (University of Melbourne), Professor Stephen Bottomley (Australian National University), Professor Peta Spender (Australian National University) and Brynn O’ Brien (lawyer, PhD candidate, UTS).
2015 CLTA Conference
Corporate Law: Local and Global Dimensions
In 2015 the Melbourne Law School, in conjunction with the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation, hosted the Corporate Law Teachers Association’s (CLTA) annual conference in Melbourne from Sunday, 1 February to Tuesday, 3 February 2015.
The theme of the 2015 conference was ‘Corporate Law: local and global dimensions’. The program included a mix of keynote presentations, papers by participants, and panel discussions as well as a teaching session on Sunday, 1 February 2015 with the theme Challenges and opportunities: teaching corporate law with new technologies.
Keynote Speakers:
The keynote speaker was Professor Robert Thompson, Georgetown Law School who spoke on ‘Primacy and Corporate Governance: Shareholders, Directors, CEOs, Employees, Creditors – and Courts’.
A copy of the final conference program can be found here.
2014 CLTA Conference
From Corner Shop to Large Multinational: The Governance, Regulation and Rescue of Corporations
In 2014 the University of Adelaide hosted the Corporate Law Teachers Association’s (CLTA) annual conference at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide from Sunday, 2 February to Tuesday, 4 February.
The theme for the 2014 CLTA conference was ‘From Corner Shop to Large Multinational: The Governance, Regulation, and Rescue of Corporations’. Participants are invited to consider the challenges inherent in regulating for the diverse types of corporations. In addition to the theme, participants may wish to consider the following streams:
- Regulators and Regulation
- The Future of Corporate Law
- Corporate Governance
- Insolvency
- Ethics in the Corporate Sphere
Keynote Speakers:
The program included a mix of keynote presentations, papers by participants, and panel discussions. The keynote speaker was Professor Andrew Keay, Professor of Law from the University of Leeds, and distinguished scholar.
2013 CLTA Conference
Corporate Law – Progressive Possibilities
The ANU College of Law hosted the Corporate Law Teachers Association‘s annual conference in 2013 at The Australian National University in Canberra. The conference ran from Sunday 3 February to Tuesday 5 February.
In the wake of the global financial crisis, the role of corporate law, its failures and its promises, is under scrutiny. Most of the attention has focused on practical or instrumental questions, such as whether we need more or less regulation to prevent a repeat of the crisis.
The 2013 CLTA conference invited participants to focus on the broader questions and underlying assumptions about corporate law and financial markets. The conference will examine alternative visions for regulation that promote accountability, fairness and democracy. Speakers will discuss issues such as progressive critiques of corporate law, regulatory theory and human rights.
Keynote Speakers:
Keynote speakers were Professor John John Braithwaite (Australian Research Council Federation Fellow, Regulatory Institutions Network, ANU), Professor Kent Greenfield (Professor of Law & Law Fund Research Scholar, Boston College Law School) and Professor David Kinley (Chair in Human Rights Law, University of Sydney, Faculty of Law) are leading scholars with unique insights into the connections between corporate law, regulatory theory and human rights.
We will also be holding a session on the relationship between the academy and the profession which features highly respected panellists including Professor Paul Finn, jurist and former judge of the Federal Court of Australia, Ms Belinda Gibson, Deputy Chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Mr Tony Hartnell AM, a leading practitioner and principal of Atanaskovic Hartnell Lawyers.
2012 CLTA Conference
Corporate Law Teachers Association Conference 2012
Hosted by Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia
Corporate Law in Times of Change
The conference was held on 5-7 February 2012 and covered contemporary issues in both Corporate Law and Corporate Governance in the light of the Global Financial Crisis. These issues included board diversity, insolvency and business judgement and reforms.
The keynote speaker for the 2012 Conference was Professor Douglas Branson, one of the leading US commentators on Corporate Law and Corporate Governance.
Best Conference Paper Prize
Each year one paper from the annual conference is selected as the most notable publication. A strict criteria is used for judging each paper in order to determine a winner. For more information regarding the criteria and previous winning papers please visit the Best Conference Paper Prize page.
Recorded Sessions
2011 CLTA Conference
6th – 8th February 2011
Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
School of Law
The 2011 Corporate Law Teachers Annual Conference explores the theme
Future Directions for Corporate Law: Where are we now and where do we go from here?
The year 2011 marks twenty years since the first Corporate Law Teachers’ Association conference was held. The occasion was a celebration of the achievements of the Association over that time. In Australia, 2011 also marked twenty years since the commencement of the Corporations Law on 1 January 1991. Over this time frame there have been significant corporate law developments in New Zealand and other Asian and Pacific countries as well. Many of us will identify changes that have occurred in the past twenty years in respect of the legal, social and economic fabric of society.
2010 CLTA Conference
Law School, University of South Australia
7th – 9th February 2010
City West Campus
Adelaide
The 2010 Corporate Law Teachers Annual Conference explores the theme
Educating Lawyers:
Better Counsel and Better Managers of the Corporate Legal Framework
The global financial crisis continues to dominate world headlines and to drive rapid and wide ranging reform in corporate and securities law. Many of these reforms are designed to address the management of systemic risk and to curb executive excess. To a degree, they reflect a shortfall in previous reform intended to strengthen corporate governance.
Simultaneously, business worldwide is preparing to adjust to a carbon constrained future. Carbon pollution reduction schemes and carbon trading will collaterally bear upon corporate management, corporate finance, and corporate insolvency.
Driven by financial volatility and climate change, the current reform agenda has significant implications for the practice of corporate counsel, compliance officers, regulators and law firms, and, in turn, for legal education and research. Legal professionals are both agents involved in previous failures and empowered as agents for change. That position therefore imposes responsibility upon corporate law educators to ensure that their students have the necessary legal, social and ethical understanding required to learn from the past and respond to future challenges.
Click here for more information
Read more about previous conferences here.
SCOLA 