Shelley D. Marshall

Rethinking Global Market Governance Crisis and Reinvention

The recent financial crisis and Great Recession have been compared to other historical moments during which significant shifts in regimes of market governance have occurred. Here, we engage with the pieces that follow in this special section of Politics & Society as we consider three dimensions along which global market governance might be transformed in the direction of greater democracy. First, given that problems of market governance often extend across national boundaries, enhanced intergovernmental coordination could play a key role in promoting the public interest. Second, broader country representation would help to ensure that the interests of different national publics are more fully addressed. Third, wider social participation would expand the definition of the public interest at both the national and global levels, allowing a range of social groups to enhance the quality of their representation by governments and IGOs, and to engage more directly in the project of market governance.

Are Superannuation Funds and Other Institutional Investors in Australia Acting Like 'Universal Investors'?

This study investigates whether Australian superannuation funds and other institutional investors are concerned with the human resource management (HRM) and industrial relations (IR) practices of companies. It examines whether they use indicators of HRM or IR practices in their investment decisions and whether they attempt to influence these types of practices through other means, in the same way that investors are now doing so regarding corporate governance issues. The study finds there are embryonic signs of investors doing both. However, the ad hoc nature of engagement as well as significant information barriers, reduce the efficacy of this engagement.

Corporate Governance and Labour Law: Situating Australia's ‘Regulatory Style’

This article gives an overview of the ‘Varieties of Capitalism’ and ‘Legal Origins’ literature to develop a stylised model of various complementarities between corporate governance and the management of labour, with an emphasis on the role of corporate law and labour law. The authors then apply this model to interrogate the development of Australian labour law and corporate law, and consider whether a case can be made for an Australian exceptionalism.

Institutional Change in Practice: Experimental Displacement and Complementary Layering in Labour Law Reform

Wide agreement over the need to reform the personal scope of the application of labour law has emerged at a national and supranational level. Great ideas are only the beginning of any law reform process, however. As labour law scholars we often act as if change is driven by ideas, even as we observe and write about other causes of institutional change. The puzzle of how institutional change occurs in practice has absorbed regulatory and institutional theorists for some time. This paper draws on the work of Kathleen Thelen, in particular. It is concerned with two strategies of purposeful institutional change and with the question of how agents of social change bring about reform. These strategies are here termed ‘complementary layering’ and ‘experimental displacement’ and illustrated with case studies drawn from the textile, clothing and footwear industry in Australia and head-load work in Maharashtra, India; two of the most innovative examples of strategies to expand the scope of labour market regulation worldwide. A mixed methodology entailing interviews with workers and regulatory agents, legal analysis and broader political economy analysis is employed to explore the strengths and weaknesses of these strategies for bringing about institutional change in practice.

Experiments in Globalizing Justice: Emergent Lessons and Future Trajectories

As trade and production have increasingly crossed international boundaries, private bodies and governments alike have sought new ways to regulate labour standards and advance goals of fairness and social justice. Governments are harnessing social and market forces to advance corporate accountability, while private bodies are employing techniques drawn from command and control regulation to shape the behaviour of business. This collection brings together the research and reflections of a diverse international mix of academics, activists and practitioners in the fields of fair trade and corporate accountability, representing perspectives from both the industrialized and developing worlds. Contributors provide detailed case studies of a range of social justice governance initiatives, documenting the evolution of established strategies of advocacy and social mobilization, and evaluating the strengths and limitations of voluntary initiatives compared with legally enforceable instruments. This Chapter concludes the book, setting up a schema for understanding and differentiating between different types of corporate accountability mechanisms.

Labour law and development: Characteristics and challenges

This book is an exploration of arguments about the economic and social effects of the regulation of labour, and whether it is likely to be helpful or harmful to development. Authored by contributors from a variety of fields, primarily legal as well as development studies, economics and regulatory studies, the book presents both empirical and theoretical analyses of the issues. With authors from several continents, this collection is unique in that it focuses on labour regulation in poor and middle-income countries rather than industrialised ones, therefore making it a significant contribution to the field.

Shareholder Primacy and Directors' Duties: An Australian Perspective

An important debate in corporate governance concerns the validity of the shareholder primacy theory—a theory which depicts the role of company directors as primarily being to act in the interests of shareholders and maximise the wealth of shareholders. This article reports the results of a survey of Australian company directors that had, among its objectives, testing the validity of the shareholder primacy theory. Findings are presented on four questions: (i) Do directors prioritise the interests of shareholders above the interests of employees and other stakeholders? (ii) If so, does the source of that prioritisation lie in legal obligation or duty? (iii) Are directors in types of companies corresponding to the market/outsider model more inclined to prioritise shareholder interests? (iv) Does the prioritisation of shareholder interests tend to come at the expense of employees?

Social Governance in a Global Economy: Introduction to an Evolving Agenda

As trade and production have increasingly crossed international boundaries, private bodies and governments alike have sought new ways to regulate labour standards and advance goals of fairness and social justice. Governments are harnessing social and market forces to advance corporate accountability, while private bodies are employing techniques drawn from command and control regulation to shape the behaviour of business. This collection brings together the research and reflections of a diverse international mix of academics, activists and practitioners in the fields of fair trade and corporate accountability, representing perspectives from both the industrialized and developing worlds. Contributors provide detailed case studies of a range of social justice governance initiatives, documenting the evolution of established strategies of advocacy and social mobilization, and evaluating the strengths and limitations of voluntary initiatives compared with legally enforceable instruments.This Chapter introduces the book, setting up the theoretical and policy debates addressed. This draft of Chapter 1 includes materials that were cut for print.