John H. Farrar

Self Dealing, Fair Dealing and Related Party Transactions - History, Policy and Reform

The law on self dealing, fair dealing and related party transactions has a long and complex history and different approaches have been adopted by common law jurisdictions. This article traces the history of the Anglo American case law and legislation and the underlying policies and considers recent reforms and whether they can be improved upon. It makes a practical suggestion to supplement the recent reforms by regulatory approval of disclosure documentation to shareholders or waiver. It also considers whether there is an implicit priority for the duty to act for the good of the company or to promote its success.

Globalisation, the Global Financial Crisis and the State

The recent global financial crisis has challenged conventional wisdom, and our conception of globalisation has been called into question. This challenging and timely book revisits the relationship between globalisation, the crisis and the state from an interdisciplinary perspective, with law, economics and political science underpinning the analysis.

The BRICS: Experiments with state capitalism and institutional investment

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Vai Io Lo and Mary Hiscock, together with scholars and researchers from around the world, investigate the rise of the BRICS and assess the extent of their further development and influence from the perspectives of economics, international relations and law.

Australia's Trade, Investment and Security in the Asian Century

The rise of Asian economies has ushered in the Asian century. States or economies in other continents, including those in Europe, North America, South America and Africa, have taken steps to commence or enhance trade relations with expanding Asian economies, while being cautious in maintaining established prestige or safeguarding national security. Owing to its geographical proximity to Asia and its Anglo-American political affinity as well as European cultural heritage, Australia has been juggling with two competing objectives — quantifiable economic prosperity resulting from increased trade and investment with Asian economies (especially China) and the perceived national or regional security derived from remaining a loyal ally of the US — even though these attributes have also placed it in an enviable position. At this juncture, the question is how Australia can achieve both prosperity and security and meet its aspiration for esteem in the international community…

Hard Choices: Defining Australia's National Interest in the Asian Century

Australia is a prosperous country with a complex past and subject to geographical isolation and the tyranny of distance (Blainey, 1983). It is a large land mass, much of which is arid but rich in resources, and it is near to Asia on the one side and New Zealand and remote Pacific Islands on the other. It was sparsely populated by primitive nomadic indigenous people who had their own way of coping with the environment (Broome, 2002, ch. 1). Europeans initially settled Australia as penal colonies after the American War of Independence (Hughes, 1988). The size of the continent meant the settlement of separate colonies which subsequently formed a federation as the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 (Clark, 1995, chs. 5–6; Welsh, 2004, ch. 9). The sparseness of the population and the proximity of Asia led to fears of an Asian invasion (Windschuttle, 2004; Day, 2005, chs. 11–12). In the gold rushes of the 19th century, there was an influx of Chinese immigrants (Fitzgerald, 2007; Day, 2005, ch. 12). In a very interesting book written in 1893, National Life and Character: A Forecast, Charles Pearson, former Oxbridge don and Kings College London Professor who became Minister of Education in Victoria, put forward this striking argument (pp. 84–85):The day will come, and perhaps is not far distant, when the European observer will look round to see the globe girdled with a continuous zone of the black and yellow races, no longer too weak for aggression or under tutelage, but independent, or practically so, in government, monopolising the trade of their own regions, and circumscribing the industry of the Europeans; when Chinamen and the natives of Hindostan, the states of Central and South America, by that time predominantly Indian … are represented by fleets in the European seas, invited to international conferences and welcomed as allies in quarrels of the civilized world…

Globalisation, the crisis and the state: introduction

The recent global financial crisis has challenged conventional wisdom, and our conception of globalisation has been called into question. This challenging and timely book revisits the relationship between globalisation, the crisis and the state from an interdisciplinary perspective, with law, economics and political science underpinning the analysis.