This article aims to introduce the phenomenon of ‘hashtag capitalism’ – that is, the ability of shareholders, employees, customers and even members of society to leverage social media in a way that ...influences corporate behaviour. While it is a positive development that, via social media, members of society are engaging with and influencing corporate decision-making, there are also concerns that some individuals are able to influence the financial decisions and opinions of others, and that such individuals might need to be held accountable. The article describes the different developments that have created the perfect storm to give rise to hashtag capitalism and argues that there is an urgent need for corporate law and regulation to reckon with this phenomenon, to ensure that we are able to retain the benefits while effectively addressing the risks involved.
The conversation about how artificial intelligence (AI) might affect various areas of law (and other areas of life) has, in recent months, centred around ChatGPT which is just one application of AI. ...This article takes a broader view and assesses how AI, and technology more broadly, has begun to transform, and will continue to transform corporate insolvency law. While the pandemic has increased the adoption of technology in corporate insolvency processes, there is scope for further transformation. This article aims to survey the technological changes to corporate insolvency law and practice thus far and assess, based on current advances in technology, the potential for further transformation. It advances the argument that technology can improve efficiencies both prior to and during formal insolvency resolution processes. It therefore would be in the interests of every country to facilitate the adoption of technology at various points in the insolvency process. The article takes a cross‐jurisdictional approach to identify tech advances in insolvency law across different countries based on which best practices and guidelines can be outlined.
The economic and political empowerment of Indigenous people are linked although the issue of economic empowerment is often overlooked. This Brief analyses the corporate governance model and business ...structures used by Maori in New Zealand along with some developments in Canadian Indigenous businesses. Based on this, the Brief makes suggestions for proving the regulatory support and options available for Indigenous businesses in Australia.
A recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada Nevsun Resources Ltd. v Araya, has brought the issue of transnational corporations' responsibility for human rights violations to the forefront in ...Canada. After critically examining the decision, this article aims to propose an effective legislative design for Canada. The article also examines another pertinent decision (this one from the UK), Vedanta Resources plc. v Lungowe in this regard. The proposals for effective legislation in Canada set out in this article will also be relevant for other countries considering the introduction of (or amending) modern slavery laws.
Social movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, powered by social media, have given rise to heightened corporate activism on social issues. They have also drawn attention to the importance of ...addressing diversity issues for the workforce rather than simply at the board or management level. This Article argues that the focus on such social issues is desirable, and indeed necessary; however, myopic responses to social media pressures can be counterproductive. Instead, this Article proposes that corporate decisions and actions should be geared towards addressing issues that help the companies' stakeholders in the long term. Further, it argues that long-term policies that improve corporate culture will ultimately bear results because employees cannot be won over by mere virtue-signalling or short-term policies.
The current focus on the monitoring role of the corporate board has come under much criticism. Independent directors play a significant role within this model. However, their ability to truly ...function independently has been rightly questioned in the last decade. Independent directors are impeded by two main problems: first, the lack of access to relevant information, for which they are reliant on management, and second, the high likelihood of being captured (to varying degrees) by management. There have been various suggestions to fix these problems, ranging from enhancing board diversity to drastically reforming the current model of corporate boards. This Article argues that diversity holds the promise of slowly reforming the current board model, so long as well-considered measures are taken. To that end, this Article will propose a model of board governance that relies on providers of supplemental board services as intermediaries to facilitate diversity on boards. This model will, on the one hand, allow companies to attract both the best and diverse directors and on the other hand, allow board candidates (especially diverse candidates) to make well-informed decisions about taking on directorships. Eventually, companies may choose to share these reports with investors and the general public to signal their commitment to diversity and governance. Finally, the proposed model has the potential to drive boards to take on more of an advisory role along with the current focus on monitoring.
The economic and political empowerment of Indigenous people are linked although the issue of economic empowerment is often overlooked. This Brief analyses the corporate governance model and business ...structures used by Maori in New Zealand along with some developments in Canadian Indigenous businesses. Based on this, the Brief makes suggestions for proving the regulatory support and options available for Indigenous businesses in Australia.
The economic and political empowerment of Indigenous people are linked although the issue of economic empowerment is often overlooked. This Brief analyses the corporate governance model and business ...structures used by Maori in New Zealand along with some developments in Canadian Indigenous businesses. Based on this, the Brief makes suggestions for proving the regulatory support and options available for Indigenous businesses in Australia.
Even though the majority of the so-called high-entropy alloys (HEAs) are multi-phase rather than single-phase solid solutions at thermodynamic equilibrium, recent studies on HEAs do open up a massive ...compositional space for the exploration of novel microstructures with the potential of exhibiting greatly enhanced functional or mechanical properties. Understanding the phase transformation pathways (PTPs) and microstructural evolution in multi-phase HEAs will aid alloy and process designs to tailor the microstructures for specific engineering applications. In this work, we study microstructural evolution in two-phase HEAs where a disordered parent phase separates into a mixture of two phases: an ordered phase (β′) + a disordered phase (β) upon cooling via two different PTPs: (i) congruent ordering followed by spinodal decomposition in the ordered phase and then disordering of one of the ordered phases, i.e., β→β′→β1′+β2′→β+β2′ and (ii) spinodal decomposition in the disordered phase followed by ordering of one of the disordered phases, i.e., β→β1+β2→β1+β′. We systematically investigate the effects of equilibrium volume fractions of individual phases, free energy landscapes (in particular, the location of the critical point of the miscibility gap relative to the compositions of the final two equilibrium phases), and elastic modulus mismatch between the two equilibrium phases on the microstructural evolution of these HEAs. We focus on the following morphological characteristics: bi-continuous microstructures vs. precipitates + matrix microstructures, ordered matrix + disordered precipitates vs. disordered matrix + ordered precipitates, and the discreteness of the precipitate phase. This parametric study may aid in multi-phase HEA design for desired microstructures.
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Recent studies revealed that multiphase microstructures in Al
0.5
NbTa
0.8
Ti
1.5
V
0.2
Zr, Fe
15
Co
15
Ni
20
Mn
20
Cu
30
and TiZrNbTa multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs) developed via spinodal ...decomposition assisted phase transformation pathways offer better properties than single-phase MPEAs. Although spinodal decomposition has been widely studied for the past six decades, it has not been explored in detail as a design strategy to develop multiphase MPEAs. In this work, we illustrate high-throughput CALPHAD calculations necessary to design MPEAs with spinodal decomposition assisted multiphase microstructures by using Fe-Co-Ni-Mn-Cu system as an example. Firstly, the MPEAs that possess single solid solution phase at high temperatures and can undergo spinodal decomposition are identified through solid solution stability analysis and phase equilibrium calculations. The spinodal temperature as a function of alloy composition is visualized through Morral’s constant core component diagrams and the MPEAs of interest are selected based on further phase equilibrium calculations at the ageing temperature. Lastly, the critical features of spinodal decomposition such as the initial compositional modulations are calculated for the chosen alloy compositions. We find that the alloying elements could be divided into three groups: (i) Fe and Co, (ii) Ni and Mn, and (iii) Cu, based on the spinodal decomposition features predicted by the PanHEA database, and the restricted solubility of Cu in Fe and Co has led to the miscibility gap in FCC solid solutions of Fe-Co-Ni-Mn-Cu MPEAs. However, the addition of Ni and Mn is crucial in attaining spinodal microstructures as they aid in shifting the miscibility gap below the solidus curve in these MPEAs.
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