Assignment BULAW5915 Corporations Law Semester 1, 2020
Instructions
The purpose of this assignment is to enable you to consider and research a topic of current interest and relevance to Australian corporate law.
The assignment will be marked out of 30.
It is important that you take time to think through how to structure and present arguments and to review and discuss what the law is or should be in a particular area. Whilst discussion with others is encouraged, the final piece of work must be your own.
Please note that the word limit is 2,500 – 2,750 words in total. Assignments exceeding the word limit may not be marked and may be returned to the student for re-writing.
Assignments less than the required length will risk not covering the topic adequately and may result in a fail. Do not include synopsis, references or bibliography in the word count.
Note: All Federation University Australia rules relating to referencing, citation and acknowledgement must be followed.
This assignment requires you to do independent research. In this regard, you may find the
Library’s databases useful. You should appropriately reference your assignment, including in the text of your assignment or as footnotes, and provide a reference list or bibliography at the end of your assignment.
Due Date
By 11 p.m. Friday in Week 9 – submission through Moodle ‘Assignment submission link’.
Topic
The following two paragraphs are taken from an article dated 27 December 2018 by Grace Ormsby, published in the online edition of Lawyers Weekly.
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Human rights lawyer and youth adviser for the United Nations Philip Chan was in conversation with Lawyers Weekly when he said the recent passing of the Modern Slavery Act will “build momentum for the corporate respect for human rights and towards embedding human rights into Australian companies.”
Mr Chan called the act “an opportunity for corporations to manage their reputational and financial risks around modern slavery and human rights, and to improve public trust in their company.”
On 27 June 2018 the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (NSW) received assent (NSW Act); and on
10 December 2018 the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) received assent (Cth Act)
Required - Part A (15 marks)
What is meant by ‘modern slavery’? Give an example of behaviour that would be considered modern slavery. Describe the estimated extent and impact of modern slavery in Australia.
Hint: refer to media reports for articles concerning behaviour that constitutes modern slavery.
Required - Part B (3+3+3+3+3=15 marks)
1. Referring to the Explanatory Memoranda, explain in your own words the purpose of each of the Acts.
2. To which entities does the Cth Act apply? What are these entities required to do?
What are the consequences for non-compliance?
3. To which entities does the NSW Act apply? What are these entities required to do?
What are the consequences for non-compliance?
4. Identify key differences between the NSW Act and the Cth Act.
5. Are each of the Acts currently in force? If so, on which dates did the operative provisions commence. If not, why not?
Hint:
As a start to your research, read relevant guides produced by Parliament.