Week 1 Law and Governance Flashcards
What is Corporate Governance?
How a company is managed, in terms of the institutional systems and protocols meant to ensure accountability and sound ethics. The concept encompasses a variety of issues, including disclosure of information to shareholders and board members, remuneration of senior executives, potential conflicts of interest among managers and directors, supervisory structures, etc…
What is the Canadian Public Accountability Board (CPAB)?
It’s mission is “to contribute to public confidence the integrity of the financial reporting of public companies in Canada by promoting high quality, independent auditing.”
What Canadian Bill duplicates the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in both wording and regulatory requirements?
Bill 198
What is OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)?
that has forged global standards, international conventions, agreements and recommendations to promote rules of the game in such areas as governance and the fight against bribery and corruption, corporate responsibility, development assistance, global investment, international taxation and environment.
What is OECD known for?
The principles of Corporate Governance that has gained worldwide recognition as a benchmark for good corporate governance.
What rules of recognition do you use to determine what is legal and what is not?
A feeling of inherent right or wrong, moral code, religious, combination
What are Legal Rules?
Have certain legal features that rules do not have: they are backed and enforced by authority
How are rules created in Canada?
Legal rules are created based on political and social values and are recognised by certain acts such as passage of laws and judgement in court
What is social norm?
An identifiable behaviour pattern that is expected and appropriate in a given set of circumstances in a particular society
Why do we obey Legal Rules?
Fear of punishment
What is Hobbesian view?
Sees human beings as selfish, violent and predisposed to use force and fraud to get what they want.
Individuals are seen as entering into a covenant or agreement with a sovereign or higher authority in which they gave up their rights to act as wished, by permitting the higher authority to have a monopoly on law making and enforcement and the use of force.
The agreement with the higher authority was useless unless there was power to enforce.
We overly because we fear disorder that will arise if we do not and because we will certainly be punished if we do not
What is Lockean view?
View that the individuals were given to living peacefully and it’s each other and cooperating to assist each other.
Individuals consented to enter into a civil society by way of a compact (agreement), where a ruler ruled and made rules with the consent of the governed and where the ruler respected certain basic individual rights: chief among them, the right to own property
They did not obey in fear.
They obey because they saw the law as serving their interests and because they have consented to its creation - it was their law.
What is the rule of law?
The idea that no one including rule makers and enforcers, is above the law or except from it.
What is Natural law?
Provides a moral outcome
A theory of law that presupposes or assumes beforehand the existence of a divine natural law exterior to and superior to human law.
Human law to be valid, must conform to the moral requirements of natural law or is invalid and need not be obeyed.
What is Legal positivism?
Applies legal rules literally.
Is concerned with procedure and until it becomes law (or doesn’t), debate and morality are inconsequential.
