CALLY E. JORDAN, University of Melbourne - Law School
Email: c.jordan@unimelb.edu.au

"Oscar Wilde would have regarded our modern Corporations Law not only as uneatable, but also indigestible and incomprehensible" (Sir Anthony Mason, 1992).

There is no dispute; it is unlovely and unloved. Complex, ungainly, internally inconsistent, conceptually troubled; the Corporations Act 2001(CA 2001) is a mishmash of old law, ad hoc amendments, provisions pulled willy-nilly from different legal systems, statements which are not law at all, ideological posturing, and drafting styles that swing wildly from the colloquial to the technical. Despite massive efforts at law reform in the last fifteen years, and continuous tweaking, the CA 2001 remains, as Sir Anthony Mason found it, indigestible and incomprehensible.

The state of the legislation, at odds with the dynamism of the Australian economy over this same period, raises some intriguing questions. Is corporations law not just "trivial", as Bernard Black provocatively suggested a few years ago, but completely irrelevant? In this case, does law not matter, not a whit? Is corporate law reform not worth the economic candle? Why is consistency and coherency in business law not valued in Australia? Is this an atavistic response of an old common law system, a deep-rooted aversion to "codification"?

This paper looks at some of the consequences of this state of affairs, arguing that a better corporations law would be of benefit to Australia. The paper identifies some points of departure: a separate business corporations statute, elimination of the bifurcation of directors duties (as between the statute and the general law), substitution of a comprehensive personal property security regime for the troublesome insolvent trading provisions and reconceptualisation of the complexities of capital maintenance rules.

JEFF LIEN, Economic Analysis Group, USDOJ
Email: jeffrey.lien@usdoj.gov

In the 1990s and early 2000s, a series of state and federal initiatives restructured electric markets. In many areas of the country generation was unbundled from transmission and distribution and competitive markets for energy generation were established. A decade has now passed since many of these market reforms were implemented, and increasing energy prices have re-focused attention on these reforms. In particular, commentators are blaming the reforms for the rising energy prices and, in several states, legislators are now considering re-imposing regulation. In this paper I discuss some successful features of industry restructuring, and consider areas where further reform may be warranted. It appears that market restructuring is now producing significant tangible benefits in the areas of the country where it has been most fully implemented. Calls for the reimposition of heavy-handed regulation should be resisted.

JAMES PREST, Australian National University - ANU College of Law
Email: prestj@law.anu.edu.au

Increased pressure to implement timely and effective responses to mitigate global warming - arising from the 4th Assessment Report of the IPCC - has underlined the importance of reviewing laws for the deployment of renewable energy (RE). Although debate in Australia has recently advanced towards adoption of more ambitious targets for RE generation, it has focussed largely on laws that create a market in renewable energy certificates (RECS). The Commonwealth mandatory renewable energy target legislation is discussed in light of commitments to expand it to reach a target of 20% of Australia's electricity by 2020. Recent European experience suggests that a commitment to this single strategy could limit the development of the RE industry.

This paper reviews the alternative of Feed-in Tariff (FIT) laws, which require utilities to purchase at a set price the electricity generated by RE generators. In Australia the option of FIT laws has been largely overlooked, with the exception of SA, and with some steps also taken in the ACT, Victoria and Queensland. Yet FIT laws have been adopted by preference in more than 41 jurisdictions overseas. The SA law and the ACT Bill are at threat from promises to "cut red tape" and bring State based targets within a single national scheme.

Review of the European experience suggests that FIT laws have been more effective than RECs laws in three respects: capacity deployment, industry development, and in some cases, price reductions. This suggests that FIT laws should be considered as potentially a more effective means to expand RE generation capacity in Australia.

Given present Federal proposals for the national harmonisation of renewable energy laws, review of the international literature about the comparative effectiveness of various legislative models is vital. State targets are likely to be replaced with a single Commonwealth renewable energy target.

Arguments concerning the compatibility of renewable energy laws with the operation of a national emissions trading system effective from 2010 are considered. It is concluded that RE legislation will be necessary until 2025, contingent on the effectiveness of the carbon trading legislation. Arguments running counter to the proposal by the PM's Task Group on Emissions Trading (2007), that all RE legislation be repealed at Commonwealth and State level are also examined.

JOHN FLOOD, University of Westminster, School of Law
Email: john.flood@care4free.net

The paper presents the historical arguments that led to the Clementi review of the legal profession and its culmination in the Legal Services Act 2007. There were two strands: one based on consumerism (too many complaints about lawyers' services); the other based on a sustained investigation by the competition authorities into professions' restrictive practices (anti-competitive unless proved in the public interest). These led to the abandonment of traditional forms of organization for lawyers' practices (alternative business structures) and the imposition of a new regulatory structure for the profession (oversight and frontline regulators).

In the second part of the paper I examine the trends in lawyers' practices as currently pursued and as envisaged by the Act as aligned with our conceptions of professionalism. Using two hypotheticals: Tesco Law, and Goldman Sachs Skadden, I chart a move from professionalism to deskilling and proletarianization in the legal profession, not unlike that which existed in the 19th century.

This dystopian view, which is essentially a top down conception of the legal industry, is contrasted with a more optimistic view based on the changes in the idealization of careers and life as represented by Generation Y. This is augmented by the changing nature of work, ie, post-Fordist, within organizations which in a number of ways escapes control and measurement because the distinctions between production and consumption, work and leisure allied with distributed network forms of production blur the boundaries that we have taken for granted. In contrast to the socio-economic approaches, I argue that we must examine conceptions of career, inclusion and exclusion, vocation, and community in order to understand how the professions will adapt to the postmodern condition.