Understanding Company Law 21st ed

Australia Title

Understanding Company Law has for many years been a leading text for both law and business students undertaking the study of company law. In this 22nd Edition, Phillip Lipton and Abe Herzberg have been joined by Catherine Robinson and Benjamin Saunders as co-authors. This edition has been updated to include the following recent legislative changes:

• Corporate Collective Investment Vehicle Framework and other Measures Act (2022) introduced a Corporate Collective Investment Vehicle (CCIV) as a new type of company limited by shares that is used for fund management. A key objective of the legislation is to increase the competitiveness of Australia’s managed funds industry internationally to attract offshore investment. The features of a CCIV are discussed in Chapter 27.
• Corporations Amendment (Meetings and Documents) Act 2022 makes permanent changes to the Corporations Act to permit virtual and hybrid meetings. The legislation also inserted Pt 1.2A into the Corporations Act to permit company documents to be executed electronically. The changes relating to execution of documents are discussed in Chapter 5 and the changes relating to meetings are discussed in Chapter 21.
• The Treasury Laws Amendment (Modernising Business Communications and Other Measures) Act 2023 now enables all documents under the Corporations Act to be signed electronically and certain additional categories of documents can be sent electronically or in hard copy.

table of content

1 Regulatory framework

2 Registration and its effects

3 Types of companies

4 Constitution and replaceable rules

5 The company’s relations with outsiders

6 Promoters and pre- registration contracts

7 Fundraising

8 Share capital

9 Membership

10 Dividends

11 Debentures and personal property securities

12 Directors

13 Overview and summary of directors’ duties

14 Corporate governance

15 Directors’ duties of good faith and proper purpose

16 Directors’ conflicts of interest duties

17 Directors’ duties of care, skill and diligence

18 Directors of insolvent companies

19 Remedies and penalties for directors’ breach of duty

20 Exoneration and relief for directors’ breach of duty

21 Shareholders’ meetings

22 Financial reporting and disclosure

23 Auditors

24 Members’ remedies

25 Takeovers

26 Financial services and markets

27 Managed investments

28 ASIC’s investigatory and information- gathering powers

29 Corporate insolvency

30 Receivership

31 Voluntary administration, deed of company arrangement and restructuring

32 Liquidation

Tables - Cases, Corporations Act, Corporations Regulations, Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act, Codes, Statutes.

Index