Catching the corporate conscience

Corporations are ‘people’ in the eyes of the law, but unlike natural people, they don’t need to eat or sleep, can operate 24 hours a day, simultaneously across countries, and can split themselves into more convenient parts to avoid tax and other obligations. So, what happens when such powerful ‘people’ turn bad? For the law, the knowledge and intention of a wrongdoer really matters for liability and punishment. But corporations don’t, of course, have natural minds. So what does, and should, the law do to ‘catch the corporate conscience’? This talk will explain a revolutionary new approach to this critical challenge. Simple and powerful, it provides an answer to the artful excuses offered by corporations that, up to now, have allowed many to dodge their responsibilities for serious wrongdoing.

Bio

Dr Elise Bant is Professor of Private Law and Commercial Regulation at The University of Western Australia, a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. She is a general editor of the Journal of Equity with Professor Simone Degeling (UNSW) and Associate Professor Ying Khai Liew (MLS). Her main areas of teaching and research interests lie in the fields of unjust enrichment and restitution law, contract and consumer law, commercial regulation, civil remedies, property, equity and trusts. Elise has been appointed an Australian Research Council Future Fellow to examine corporate liability for serious civil misconduct, including fraud and predatory trading practices (FT 190100475): https://www.uwa.edu.au/schools/research/unravelling-corporate-fraud-re-purposing-ancient-doctrines-for-modern-times

Event

5:30 pm @Durty Nelly's Irish Pub, 397 Murray St, Perth (Shafto Lane)

Also speaking at this location at 7:00 pm is Professor Paul Flatau