I went back to work in the hospital in Edinburgh, as my previous employers could not give me part-time work. Experience as a psychiatric trainee in this hospital was hard. Passed MRCPsych Part 2.

Shareholder engagement is pivotal in corporate governance, evolving beyond formal resolutions to impact business decisions. This chapter unveils the typically undisclosed dynamics of board-shareholder engagement through a survey of 171 SEC-registered corporations, targeting corporate secretaries, general counsel, and investor relations officers. The survey was complemented by a review of the disclosure on shareholder voting and engagement included in proxy statements filed by Russell 3000 companies during the 2018–2022 meeting seasons. Larger and mid-sized companies more frequently engage than smaller organizations. Engagement, often with major asset managers, can take a confrontational turn, particularly with hedge funds at smaller firms. Topics include executive incentive plans, ESG metrics, GHG emission reduction, workforce diversity, pay equity, and political spending. The study reveals that engagement significantly influences corporate practices, leading to changes, withdrawal of proposals, alterations in proxy votes, and the inclusion of engaged shareholder-nominated directors in management slates.

Despite the benefits of the convergence of AI in ecommerce, it is necessary to address some concerns. The presence of AI-powered platforms raises significant challenges to consumer autonomy. This chapter discusses the overlap and interplay among three main legal regimes – EU AI Act Proposal, Digital Services Act (DSA), and EU Consumer Law.These laws will need to be amended with new articles to adequately address AI-specific concerns

The chapter presents an overview of the procedural arrangements adopted at the international criminal jurisdictions, namely the UN ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the International Criminal Court (ICC), covering the main milestones from the initiation of the investigation to trial phase to appeals against the judgment and sentence and review. Before delving into the trajectories of an criminal case before international criminal courts and tribunals, the chapter highlights the origins of international criminal procedure in the common law (Anglo-American, or ‘adversarial’) and civil law (Continental, or ‘inquisitorial’) approaches, resulting in its legal nature as a hybrid scheme where the balance between the domestic influences varies by tribunal and over time due to reforms pursued by judge-legislators (ICTY and ICTR) or by states and, to a lesser extent, judges (ICC). The chapter reviews the role and functions of the main actors in international criminal proceedings, including repeat or professional players (judges, prosecutors, and defence) and other participants such as victims and witnesses and states and international organisations. It also highlights the normative importance of human rights to international criminal process and the imperative of complying with the principles of public, fair and expeditious proceedings.

The ever-increasing disclosure requirements we impose on public companies are, at best, not read, and at worst, are likely reducing the quality of investor decision-making. More environmental and social (ESG) disclosure has been touted as a popular solution to climate change and social issues. However, the evidence suggests this is highly unlikely, as it is very difficult for shareholders to understand the impact of corporate actions and the viable alternatives. Making matters worse, the very information shareholders require is information that assists a firm’s competitors and therefore is information that, if disclosed, has the effect of reducing the incentives for ESG innovation. Shareholders possess few legal tools capable of constructively engaging with corporate behavior. The empirical evidence about these theoretical points is evaluated, along with an examination of the real-world evidence about the outcomes of shareholder ESG interventions.

As scholars and activists seek to define and promote greater corporate political responsibility (CPR), they will benefit from understanding practitioner perspectives and how executives are responding to rising scrutiny of their political influences, reputational risk and pressure from employees, customers and investors to get involved in civic, political, and societal issues. This chapter draws on firsthand conversations with practitioners, including executives in government affairs; sustainability; senior leadership; and diversity, equity and inclusion, during the launch of a university-based CPR initiative. I summarize practitioner motivations, interests, barriers and challenges related to engaging in conversations about CPR, as well as committing or acting to improve CPR. Following the summary, I present implications for further research and several possible paths forward, including leveraging practitioners’ value on accountability, sustaining external calls for transparency, strengthening awareness of systems, and reframing CPR as part of a larger dialogue around society’s “social contract.”

This chapter examines the role of disclosure as a tool for promoting corporate political accountability by reviewing how shareholders reacted to various events in the United States and abroad that either changed the ability of firms to engage in the political process or revealed previously hidden corporate political activity. The conclusions drawn from this summary are mixed, with investors’ reactions contingent on myriad factors, including the form of the political activity engaged in, prior contestation over such activity by shareholders, and other firm-level nonmarket and market dynamics. The chapter concludes by discussing the limits of disclosure as a tool for regulating corporate political activity, as well as public policy more broadly, and advocates for broader, institutional reforms regarding the role of money in politics.

Between 2006 and 2009, firms spent an estimated billion dollars lobbying on climate-related bills and issues. Although such spending is largely perceived as a strategy by industry to oppose regulation, recent research finds a U-shaped relationship between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and lobbying expenditures (Delmas et al., 2016). These results suggest that both dirty and clean firms are active in lobbying, which challenges the view of adversarial corporate strategy. However, limitations on legal requirements for detailed disclosure make it impossible to hold companies accountable for their lobbying activity on specific issues. This chapter explores the existing disclosures, demand for additional disclosures by various stakeholders, and regulatory changes in process and on the horizon. Our discussion develops recommendations for enhanced disclosure of climate-related political activity, considering issues related to content, timing, disclosure users, disclosure regulators, and the value and role of third-party information intermediaries.

In this chapter, we examine the measurement issues that currently plague analysis of corporate political activity and that must be remedied for CPR to be credible, with a focus on the federal level. We begin with issues of electoral spending before turning to spending on lobbying. In each case, we survey the laws mandating disclosure of these activities, along with what some firms and third parties are doing to shed light on activities that fall outside these reporting requirements. We then discuss the questions that can be answered with existing data, and the important questions that are impossible to answer due to data gaps. Finally, we discuss changes to current laws, and to norms of corporate behavior, that could increase transparency and accountability around corporate political activity.

Chapter 7 forms the second of the two chapters examining cases which one would expect to fall into the middle circle in the loose concentric circles model, where both forum internum relevance and countervailing factors may both be strong or both be weak and, as such, for the degree of protection offered to depend heavily on the way in which the ECtHR balances the factors. Chapter 7 examines cases in which applicants have objected to acting contrary to their religion or belief, or have objected to disclosing their religion or belief. Again, this chapter seeks to show that the ECtHR’s approach is consistent with its general principles concerning Article 9 as the ECtHR balances factors indicating a violation (primarily, but not only, forum internum relevance) with countervailing factors indicating no violation, to reach its decision. This chapter reiterates that the fact-sensitive nature of such cases means that protection offered ranges from a high to a low degree depending on the particular circumstances of the case.

This chapter responds to leading arguments about contract remedies, including the theory of efficient breach, contract interpretation, rules of disclosure (or permitting nondisclosure), consideration, and other topics in contract law. It shows how little progress the law-and-economics movement has made in understanding most areas of contract law, despite the obvious connections between contracts and economics.

Growing numbers of men, trans/masculine, and non-binary people are bearing children, some of whom utilise known donor sperm to conceive. How this diverse population understands the role of known donors has, to date, received little attention. This chapter focuses on nine individuals who used known donor sperm to conceive, drawn from a larger international study of 51 men, trans/masculine, or non-binary people who were gestational parents. The participants discuss the role of donors in their children’s lives, exploring topics such as identifying potential donors, the incorporation (or not) of donors into existing kinship narratives, and the need to create opportunities for children to negotiate their own relationships with donors in the future. The findings highlight the potentially unique social scripting needs of men, trans/masculine, and non-binary people who conceive using donor sperm. The chapter concludes by providing suggestions for how this diverse group of people may be assisted in developing these unique social scripts.

This chapter examines the ethical regulation of participants in the arbitral process. The starting point is what is provided for and omitted by arbitration’s coordinating instruments, the New York and ICSID Conventions. While these conventions only expressly set out a few ethical rules, they determine the sources, obligations, forums, and alternatives related to ethics. Along with national arbitration laws, the conventions set limits on the content of the obligations that the parties can introduce into arbitral proceedings, such as institutional arbitration rules and soft law instruments. In terms of substantive obligations, they require that all participants uphold the fairness and integrity of arbitral proceedings while fulfilling their respective duties. The New York and ICSID Conventions also coordinate a multi-level network of forums to enforce these ethical obligations, the most prominent of which being arbitral tribunals. Yet, the imprecise delimitation of powers between national and international authorities on ethical issues is problematic today. The key to resolving this problem is not developing further substantive obligations, but rather better addressing the interplay between national and international frameworks regulating participants in the arbitral process.

Evidence – its marshalling, disclosure and presentation – lies at the heart of many, if not most, international arbitration proceedings. Yet, perhaps more than any other aspect of arbitral practice, evidentiary issues lay bare the significant divergences between the common and civil law traditions. As result, evidentiary questions can sometimes be among the most contentious that arise in an international arbitration, particularly when a dispute involves parties and/or counsel from different sides of the common law/civil law divide.In this chapter, we outline the process by which evidence is used in international arbitration and highlight some particularly thorny issues that can arise, including in relation to the document disclosure process, the admissibility of evidence and the use of evidence at an evidentiary hearing.It is important that parties and counsel consider these evidentiary issues carefully – and early in the arbitral process. Although every tribunal is different, international arbitration is fundamentally party-driven.Parties should therefore be proactive in fostering an efficient, effective, and fair process as it relates to the gathering, production and use of evidence in an international arbitration proceeding.

The profession, the legal system and society have all traditionally seen loyalty, care and competence, and confidentiality as cornerstones of professional responsibility. Lawyers are in a fiduciary relationship with their clients – clients need to be able to trust their lawyers to provide advice and represent them loyally in the legal system. This chapter first argues that strong obligations of confidentiality support the lawyer’s role as zealous advocate and officer of the court, but that there must be ethical limitations in some circumstances. Next we show that the concept of confidentiality has become quite tenuous in a world of surveillance, wired for instant disclosure and based on a communication and business model that feeds on demolishing all secrecy. We then examine the ideals of confidentiality and client legal privilege (‘CLP’). Finally, we consider whether lawyers should sometimes blow the whistle on their own clients or colleagues in order to fulfil their professional obligations as gatekeepers of justice.