Corporations Law: Meeting the Challenges of Our Time
The 2023 conference was held only six months after the 2022 conference to return to the February timeslot. The conference was held in hybrid format to continue to allow for the participation of delegates restricted from travel owing to continuing Covid-19 concerns. Despite being held so shortly after the previous conference, the conference welcomed 70 in-person delegates and seven online delegates. Several further panellists only attended their panel sessions, owing to other demands on their time. The conference welcomed delegates from all the Australian states and territories, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Delegates were invited to consider the role of corporations and corporations law to contribute to the serious challenges society is currently facing, including climate change, inequity of gender and race, rapid technological advancement and security concerns. Sessions included corporate insolvency; corporate crime; corporate purpose; financial services; ESG and sustainability; and technology and innovation. The conference was convened by Associate Professor Natania Locke.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
The keynote speaker, Professor Iris Chiu, delivered an address entitled ‘Sustainable Finance Regulation: Authoritative or Market-based Regulation’. Professor Chiu is a Professor of Corporate Law and Financial Regulation at the Faculty of Laws, University College London. Professor Jennifer Hill, inaugural Bob Baxt AO Professor of Corporate and Commercial Law at Monash University Faculty of Law and SCoLA life member, acted as a discussant to Professor Chiu’s keynote address.
PLENARY SESSIONS
This year’s conference hosted three plenary sessions. We welcomed a variety of thought leaders from industry and practice to a plenary panel focused on the conference theme. The panel comprised of The Hon Ray Finkelstein AO KC, Commissioner and Chairperson, Royal Commission into the Casino Operator and Licence; Susan Staples, Director of Risk & Governance, KPMG; Paul Murphy, Investment Stewardship Director and Head of Superannuation Policy & Advocacy, Vanguard Australia; James Hutton, Partner, Minter Ellison; James Gerraty, Manager Issuers, ASX Ltd; and Jordan Hunt, Director Cyber and Incident Response, Forensic IT. Panellists offered a brief view on the conference theme from their areas of expertise and then responded to a lively session of questions from the audience.
A second plenary session considered regulatory complexity and coherence in the charities sector, as well as for corporations and financial services. This paper was delivered by Professor Rosemary Teele Langford, Harold Ford Professor of Commercial at the University of Melbourne and Dr Andrew Godwin, Acting General Counsel, Australian Law Reform Commission and Principal Fellow at Melbourne Law School.
The third plenary session was a special treat. Life members prepared some informal comments about the scholarship that has deeply affected their thinking and that has had an impact on their subsequent research. This led to an inspiring session, where Professors Jennifer Hill, Paul Redmond, Ian Ramsay and John Farrar entertained us with accounts of thought-provoking experiences that shaped them as researchers. Added to this esteemed line-up was Professor Stephen Bottomley, who was overwhelmingly voted to join the ranks of SCoLA life members at the previous afternoon’s AGM.