Corporate Law Teachers Association Conference

Sunday 7 February 2021 – Tuesday 9 February 2021

**REGISTRATION OPEN**

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.

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.

Call for papers

Call for papers has now closed.

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.

Ancillary Program

Cancelled – Free guided history tour of the University of Sydney’s iconic Quadrangle Building (Monday afternoon). Tours are currently not being offered by the University

Corporate Law Intervarsity Moot (Tuesday evening)

Registration

Attendees may register either for online or in-person attendance.

Conference fees:

• $400 – full conference fee**
• $100 – online fee
• Dinner – $150 – venue: Sydney Sounds, Sydney Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney

Refunds: A full refund will be issued for cancellations received up to 10-working days prior to the event. If you are unable to attend in person due to COVID-19 related issues, your fee will automatically default to the ‘online’ fee, and you will receive a refund of the conference fee difference.

For general enquiries please contact law.events@sydney.edu.au

Program

Click here for a copy of the latest program (updated 19/1/2021)

Sunday 7 February

3pm to 5pm        Teaching session

Session theme: Lessons from the 2020 teaching year

Monday 8 February

Registration open from 8.30am

Tuesday 9 February

Coffee cart from 8.30am