Corporations Law: In Principle 9th

Corporations Law: In Principle 9th edition continues its tradition of being one of the most easy to understand texts on corporate law in Australia. Since the last edition, there have been many significant developments in both legislation and case law as a result of events such as the Global Financial Crisis and a range of government reviews and administrative changes.

This edition incorporates expanded and updated commentary on:-

• the national implementation of the Business Names Register;
• the personal property securities reforms, which provide a uniform regulatory framework dealing with personal property securities, including significant amendments to financial services, products and markets;
• the new Corporations Amendment (Phoenixing and Other Measures) Act 2012 (Cth), which permits ASIC to liquidate abandoned companies;
• the Corporations Amendment (Sons of Gwalia) Act 2010 (Cth), which reverses the effect of the High Court’s ruling which had allowed shareholder claims in the form of damages to rank equally with unsecured creditors in a winding-up;
• new dividend rules under revised s 254T of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth);
• changes to the Corporations Amendment (Financial Market Supervision) Act 2010 (Cth) regarding ASIC’s supervision of financial markets and real-time trading (previously supervised by the ASX);
• the new Corporations Legislation Amendment (Audit Enhancement) Act 2012 (Cth) which provides flexibility to the auditor rotation period and extends ASIC’s powers with regard to exposing deficient audit practices;
• margin lending reforms enacted by the Corporations Legislation Amendment (Financial Services Modernisation) Act 2009 (Cth), and amendments relating to providing advice about financial products and services under the new Corporations Amendment (Further Future of Financial Advice Measures) Act 2012 (Cth).

Significant cases in this edition, particularly in relation to directors’ duty of care, include ASIC v Healey (2011) (the Centro Case); ASIC v Hellicar (2012) (the James Hardie Case); Shafron v ASIC (2012); and Forrest v ASIC; Fortescue Metals Group Ltd v ASIC (2012).