Non-executive employees are increasingly being offered the opportunity to participate in employee share ownership plans. In many cases, companies provide their employees with shares or options as a 'gift', either on a one-off or regular basis. Many plans, however, are structured so as to require...

In an article published in 1999, Gilligan, Bird and Ramsay presented the results of a detailed research project in which they noted that during the six years of operation of civil penalties in Australian corporate law, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) had brought only...

Most Australians' understanding of court proceedings and the legal system is derived from television - but, more often than not, this information is from American dramas or documentaries and is not necessarily applicable to Australia. Few Australian judges have allowed cameras into their courts,...

Financial hardship, in a credit society such as Australia, can affect almost anyone. To protect consumers from the negative impacts of financial hardship — which can include the stresses of enforcement action and disconnection from essential services — legal protections have been...

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) views enforcement as an important part of its regulatory role and dedicates a significant amount of resources to surveillance and enforcement activity. This article considers what kinds of enforcement outcomes ASIC achieves and what...

In the 20 years since their introduction, debt agreements have become the fastest growing form of personal insolvency in Australia, comprising 41.5 per cent of all personal insolvencies in 2016. Debt agreements were introduced to provide debtors respite from financial stress through arrangements...

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...

This study is the first empirically based analysis of business bankruptcy to be conducted in Australia. It aims to identify key differences between debtors who declare business bankruptcy and those who declare non-business or “personal” bankruptcy, and to explore the extent to which there...