This article is the first detailed empirical study of banning orders made under legislation administered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). This method of enforcement of corporate law has been little researched, yet it is arguably the dominant mode of corporate law...

Illegal phoenix activity — the practice of liquidating or abandoning a company with the intention of avoiding its obligations and then continuing the same or a similar business via a new or related company — is estimated to cost the Australian economy up to $3.5 billion per year and appears...

Phoenix activity occurs where the business of a failed company is transferred to a second (typically newly incorporated) company and the second company's controllers are the same as the first company's controllers. Phoenix activity can cause significant harm to creditors and others. In combating...

Has the introduction of the civil penalty regime into Australian corporate law increased the speed and success rate of directors' duties cases? This question has been the subject of much commentary but, surprisingly, no empirical research. A number of commentators argue that the civil penalty...

Phoenix activity is not inherently illegal but illegal phoenix activity is generally understood to be those actions, undertaken in the phoenix context, that breach laws because they involve wrongdoing. Because illegal phoenix activity continues to cause significant harm to creditors of...

The enactment of the civil penalty regime in 1993 introduced a new approach to the enforcement of directors' duties by statutory agencies in Australia. The policy considerations that led to the regime, and which continue to inform current policies on corporate law enforcement, require that:...

This paper analyses enforceable undertakings or formally negotiated settlement agreements between the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and regulated firms and individuals. It reports the findings of an empirical study of 414 enforceable undertakings accepted by ASIC from 1...

This paper presents the preliminary findings of an empirical analysis of sanctions imposed in proceedings brought by Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) for contraventions of the directors' duties provisions of the...

This article discusses a trend towards increased empiricism in enforcement reporting by financial regulators that emphasises greater use of numerical indicators. The article examines how the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the...

Phoenix activity occurs where the business of a failed company is transferred to a second (typically newly incorporated) company and the second company's controllers are the same as the first company's controllers. Phoenix activity can be legal as well as illegal. Phoenix activity is illegal...