Online | Sustainability and Corporate Mechanisms in Asia

Speaker: Professor Ernest WK Lim, National University of Singapore, Robert S Campbell Visiting Fellow, Magdalen College, University of Oxford (from April 2022)

About this event

This is a book launch of Sustainability and Corporate Mechanisms in Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2020). This book provides a comparative and critical analysis of why and how six corporate mechanisms—(1) sustainability reporting; (2) board gender diversity; (3) constituency directors; (4) stewardship codes; (5) directors' duty to act in the company's best interests; and (6) liability on companies, shareholders and directors—have been or can be used to promote sustainability in the four leading common law jurisdictions in Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Malaysia). A central challenge is, whether and if so, how the corporate mechanisms should be reconceptualised to promote sustainability in an environment that is characterised by controlling shareholders, particularly the government in state-owned enterprises. Because controlling shareholders are the norm for the majority of the world's companies, and state-owned enterprises play a significant role, this book has important insights on the problems and prospects of advancing sustainability in concentrated and mixed ownership jurisdictions.

About the Speaker

Ernest Lim is a Professor at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (NUS). He obtained his D.Phil. and B.C.L. from Oxford, LL.M. from Harvard and LL.B. from NUS. He has published widely on comparative corporate law and governance as well as private law. He is the author of three monographs with Cambridge University Press: A Case for Shareholders’ Fiduciary Duties in Common Law Asia (2019), which won the SLS Peter Birks Runner-up Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship; Sustainability and Corporate Mechanisms in Asia (2020); and Social Enterprises in Asia: A New Legal Form (2022, forthcoming). He is also co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Private Law and Artificial Intelligence (CUP, forthcoming). He has been elected to the Robert S Campbell Visiting Fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford. He has held visiting appointments at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, King’s College London, and Columbia Law School. Prior to joining academia, he worked in the New York office of Davis Polk where he specialised in global capital market transactions.

Panel Discussants

Patrick Bourke (Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright and Member, Advisory Board, Centre for Ethics and Law, UCL)
Patrick Bourke is a dispute resolution and investigations partner at Norton Rose Fulbright LLP. Patrick heads the Corporate Disputes and Investigations team based in London and focuses on regulatory and investigatory matters (including bribery and money laundering) and on commercial litigation, arbitration and ADR. He was based in Dubai (2007-2017) as head of the firm’s Middle East business and dispute resolution practice and during that time led investigations across the MENA region. Prior to that Patrick headed up the firm’s Hong Kong dispute practice (2004-2007). He also advises on all aspects of corporate governance and risk management. Patrick is the current chairman of Professional Against Corruption. Patrick is English and Hong Kong qualified and has full rights of audience before the DIFC Courts.

Sam Eastwood, Partner, Mayer Brown and Member, Advisory Board, Centre for Ethics and Law, UCL
Sam Eastwood is a Partner in Mayer Brown’s litigation practice in London and a member of the firm’s white collar defence and compliance practice. Sam advises corporates and financial institutions on ethics, anti-corruption, economic sanctions, anti moneylaundering and human rights issues in the context of investigations, complex transactions and compliance programme development and testing. Sam’s investigation and compliance work has included mandates in China, South East Asia, Africa , Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Latin America, the United States, the Middle East, and throughout Europe (particularly the Nordic region). He has worked as a monitor or independent integrity compliance consultant reporting to the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the Serious Fraud Office. Sam sits on the Advisory Board of the University College London’s Centre for Ethics and Law and until recently was a board member of Transparency International UK (2012 -2021). He was a member of the Knowledge Partner Team supporting the Integrity & Compliance Taskforce for the 2020 G20/B20 initiative and was a member of the UK project team that developed the International Standards Institute (ISO) standard for anti-corruption management programmes. He is a founding member of the International Association for Independent Corporate Monitors.

Alperen Afşin Gözlügöl, Assistant Professor in Law and Finance at the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, Frankfurt am Main. He holds a Ph.D. from University of Hamburg and an LL.M. from University of Cambridge. His research interests include comparative corporate law & governance, capital markets law and financial regulation. He has widely published or has forthcoming papers in the leading journals, such as the Journal of Corporate Law Studies, the European Business Organisation Law Review, the European Company and Financial Law Review, and the European Business Law Review. His work also featured on the Oxford Business Law Blog and the CLS Blue Sky Blog. He is currently working on the intersection of (business) law, sustainability, and climate change.

Iris H-Y Chiu is Professor of Corporate Law and Financial Regulation at University College London. She is Director of the UCL Centre of Ethics and Law and advances the public and stakeholder engagement of the Centre’s agenda in relation to a wide range of issues in relation to law, regulation, governance and ethics in business and finance. She has published extensively in the areas of corporate governance and financial regulation, including The Foundations and Anatomy of Shareholder Activism (2010), The Legal Framework for Internal Control in Banks and Financial Institutions (2015), Investment Management and Corporate Governance (2017), Banking Law and Regulation (2019), The Law and Governance of Decentralised Business Models (2020) and Regulating the Crypto-Economy (2021). She is a Research Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute, and a member of its Editorial Board. She has also been appointed as Senior Scholar at the European Central Bank’s Legal Research Programme (2020).

Delivery

This event will be delivered via Zoom Webinar. Attendee cameras and microphones will be turned off but they will be able to put questions to the panel via the Q&A box. You will receive your zoom joining link 48-hours before the start of the event. Contact the Laws Events team (laws-events@ucl.ac.uk) if you have not receive the link.

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