An Analysis of Penalties Under ASIC Administered Legislation: Scoping the Issues

31 Pages Posted: 24 Aug 2015 Last revised: 1 Sep 2015

See all articles by George Gilligan

George Gilligan

University of Melbourne - Centre for Corporate Law

Paul Ali

University of Melbourne - Law School

Andrew Godwin

Melbourne Law School

Jasper Hedges

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Ian Ramsay

Melbourne Law School - University of Melbourne

Date Written: May 31, 2015

Abstract

This working paper is the first published output of an eighteen month (December 2014-June 2016) research project conducted by staff at the Melbourne Law School that examines enforcement and penalties regimes under legislation administered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). During 2015 and early 2016 the project will conduct a review of selected penalties over a ten year period from 2005 to 2014. This paper is an introductory publication that scopes the issues that will be examined in the course of the project. The paper begins with a brief overview of the project and identifies topics that will be considered as the project progresses. Part II discusses key findings in ASIC’s Report 387: Penalties for Corporate Wrongdoing which compares the penalties available to ASIC in relation to comparable regulators in other jurisdictions. Part III examines current debates about corporate wrongdoing and the adequacy of penalties, including the impact of recent parliamentary inquiries. Part IV explains ASIC’s regulatory and enforcement functions and briefly discusses the policy rationales that underlie such functions. Part V presents a preliminary set of data on ASIC’s enforcement activity sourced from its six monthly Enforcement Reports. Part VI makes initial observations in relation to comparable financial market regulatory agencies in other jurisdictions by reference to various criteria, including funding models. Part VII concludes the working paper.

Keywords: enforcement, financial regulation, penalties, corporate wrongdoing

JEL Classification: G18, G38, K22, K42

Suggested Citation

Gilligan, George and Ali, Paul and Godwin, Andrew and Hedges, Jasper and Ramsay, Ian, An Analysis of Penalties Under ASIC Administered Legislation: Scoping the Issues (May 31, 2015). CIFR Paper No. 071/2015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2649724 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2649724

George Gilligan

University of Melbourne - Centre for Corporate Law ( email )

185 Pelham Street, Carlton, Building 106
Victoria 3010
Australia
+61 3 8344 1079 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law-ccl@unimelb.edu.au

Paul Ali

University of Melbourne - Law School ( email )

University Square
185 Pelham Street, Carlton
Victoria, Victoria 3010
Australia
+61 3 8344 1088 (Phone)
+61 3 8344 5285 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au

Andrew Godwin

Melbourne Law School ( email )

185 Pelham Street
Carlton, Victoria 3053
Australia

Jasper Hedges

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Ian Ramsay (Contact Author)

Melbourne Law School - University of Melbourne ( email )

University Square
185 Pelham Street, Carlton
Victoria, Victoria 3010
Australia
+61 3 8344 5332 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://law.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/ian-ramsay

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
285
Abstract Views
2,247
Rank
184,591
PlumX Metrics