units

LAW7490

Faculty of Law

18 September 2017 19 April 2024
Monash University

Postgraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

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LevelPostgraduate
FacultyFaculty of Law
OfferedCity (Melbourne) Second semester 2013 (Day)

Notes

For postgraduate Law discontinuation dates, please see http://www.law.monash.edu.au/current-students/postgraduate/pg-disc-dates.html
For postgraduate Law unit timetables, please see http://law.monash.edu.au/current-students/course-unit-information/timetables/postgraduate/index.html

Synopsis

This unit investigates how and why businesses respond to the multitude of efforts made to influence or 'regulate' their behavior for the social and economic good at the local, national, and global levels by means of government regulation, industry self-regulation and civil society voluntary codes of conduct, labeling and certification schemes. Regulating Business is a practical and interdisciplinary course that critically examines the typical policy assumption that regulation is enough on its own. Case studies and examples will come from both 'social regulation' (aimed at averting environmental catastrophe, preventing accidents and ill health in mines, factories, transport and food production systems, secure the delivery of a range of essential services (power, water, housing, communication) in an equitable way, achieve justice and social inclusion for the disadvantaged and keep people's assets and livelihoods safe from financial crisis), and 'economic regulation' (to curb monopoly, promote competition, and to set standards for prices and quality in industries where competition is thought to have failed).

This unit will examine:

  1. what motivates firms and business people to respond to regulation in different ways, and especially whether to comply or not
  2. how the internal characteristics and capacities of business firms and people assist them in responding to regulation, and whether there are ways that compliance and corporate social responsibility schemes can be designed to help them comply better
  3. the influence of different regulatory enforcement strategies and styles on how business firms and people respond to regulation
  4. how regulation and responses to regulation emerge from regulators' and businesses' interactions with their broader social, economic and political environments.

Outcomes

A candidate who has successfully completed the subject should:

  • Have a good knowledge of the range of local, national and global attempts by governments, industry and civil society to regulate business for the social and economic good, and be able to analyse the mechanisms by which they attempt to garner compliance.
  • Know and understand the evidence as to the social, economic and normative factors that motivate business people and their firms to respond to regulation in different ways.
  • Know and understand the evidence as to how the internal characteristics and capacities of business firms and people assist them in responding to regulation, and whether there are ways that compliance and corporate social responsibility schemes can be designed to help them comply better.
  • Know and understand the evidence as to the influence of different regulatory enforcement strategies and styles on how business firms and people respond to regulation.
  • Know and understand the evidence as to how regulation and responses to regulation emerge from regulators' and businesses' interactions with their broader social, economic and political environments.
  • Be able to critically evaluate the legitimacy, and likely effectiveness of, the use of different regulatory tools and enforcement techniques in specific situations - by reference to law, regulation theory and empirical evidence.
  • Be able to apply the knowledge acquired in this unit as to why businesses respond to regulation in different ways to design regulatory tools and regulatory enforcement strategies that are likely to maximise compliance by business with regulation in the context of advising on regulatory policy or implementing regulation.
  • Be able to apply the knowledge acquired in this unit as to why businesses respond to regulation in different ways to help design and implement effective compliance and corporate social and legal responsibility systems to help business comply with regulation in the context of practical management and/or legal counselling.
  • Understand and be able to apply in practice the range of responses available to businesses and individuals and their advisors in preventing and responding to regulation and potential investigations of breaches of regulation, and the dynamics of the relationship between regulators and regulatees - including theories of responsive regulation and cooperative compliance.

Assessment

One research assignment (3,750 words): 50%
One take-home examination (3,750 words): 50%

Chief examiner(s)

Professor Christine Parker Research ProfileResearch Profile (http://monash.edu/research/people/profiles/profile.html?sid=127016&pid=6483)

Contact hours

Students enrolled in this unit will be provided with 24 contact hours of seminars per semester whether intensive, semi-intensive, or semester-long offering. Students will be expected to do reading set for class, and to undertake additional research and reading applicable to a 6 credit point unit.