Understanding Company Law, 16th Edition

Understanding Company Law, 16th Edition is a leading text on Australian company law. Its logical structure and accessible approach make it ideal for business law students of company law and its depth of analysis and coverage make it just as highly suitable for undergraduate law students undertaking a corporations law unit.

The 16th edition incorporates a number of significant recent amendments to legislation and case law. These include:

• Personal Property Securities (Corporations and Other Amendments) Act 2011, which incorporates into theCorporations Act the reforms introduced by the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (PPS Act). The PPS Act replaced the previous law which regulated personal property securities on the basis of the legal form of the transaction and its terminology and concepts have been included into the Corporations Act.
• Corporations Amendment (Financial Market Supervision) Act 2010, which came into operation in August 2010 and transferred supervisory responsibility for Australian licensed financial markets from the ASX to ASIC. ASIC now has the power to make and enforce "market integrity rules" and is responsible for the supervision of financial markets and enforcement of laws dealing with misconduct by market participants.
• Corporations Amendment (Corporate Reporting Reform) Act 2011, which aims to streamline Australia’s corporate reporting framework and reduce unnecessary reporting compliance requirements.
• Corporations Amendment (Sons of Gwalia) Act 2011, which overrules the High Court decision in Sons of Gwalia v Margaretic. This Act, among other things, provides that all claims in relation to dealing with shares are ranked equally and after all other creditors’ claims.
• Corporations Amendment (Improving Accountability on Director and Executive Remuneration) Act 2011, which strengthens Australia’s remuneration framework by implementing a number of recommendations made by the Productivity Commission’s 2010 report.

This edition also includes a number of important cases, the most significant of which are Morley v ASIC andASIC v Healey, dealing with directors’ duty of care.

Understanding Company Law, 16th Edition contains insightful explanations of the many issues students will have to address in this complex and often convoluted area of law, in a way that will enlighten and enliven their study of company and corporations law in Australia.