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This article considers how the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts ('UPICC') respond to the typical form of commercial contract--the relational contract. Relational contracts provide a 'framework' for relationships, allowing them to develop over time. The temporal element gives rise to peculiar issues, including: the need to accommodate changed circumstances; whether to keep the contract alive or terminate it in response to changed circumstances; contractual discretions and the role of fault and good faith; the role of contractual mechanisms for dealing with supervening risks. The article considers various of the provisions of the UPICC dealing with these issues and concludes with a consideration of possible new directions, including the proposal for a future edition of the UPICC that certain contracts can be terminated for 'just cause'. As Australian commerce becomes more international in nature, we need a common framework--a 'new law merchant'--by which contractual relations are maintained. The Australian case law on relational contracts is thin. The UPICC will prod Australian courts and practitioners to grapple with these issues. However, that effort might stall if commercial parties believe the rules in the new law merchant are too open-textured, allowing too much judicial intervention in contracting practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2012, the Australian Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department published a Discussion Paper which explored the prospect of codifying or otherwise reforming the Australian law of contract. There is little reason to think that the codification of the Australian law of contract is likely to be embarked upon in the foreseeable future. At the same time, recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in codification in Britain. This paper examines the experience of contract codification efforts in Australia with a view to identifying a number of cautionary lessons. It focuses on two challenges inherent in contract codification which have been given too little attention by the proponents of reform in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Price regulation of the utility sector occurs mainly at the wholesale level. In contrast, in Australian superannuation, regulation requires limited disclosure of fees and costs at the retail level. This paper reviews the regulatory theory that has led utilities regulators to focus on wholesale-level disclosure. It then applies the insights used in these sectors to analyse mechanisms for price and cost disclosure which could be applied to Australian superannuation. The paper argues that intervention done once, but done right, may reduce the need for mandatory retail-level disclosure and would reduce some aspects of regulatory information asymmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the proposal about consumer guarantees in Australia. The proposal aims to improve consumer well-being through consumer empowerment and protection which encourages effective competition between consumers and suppliers in the market. Member of Parliament Dr. Craig Emerson released an Issues Paper on behalf of the Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council (CCAAC), which is in in-charge on the review of the consumer law. The paper examined the adequacy of the existing laws on implied terms and the need for amendments if any. The adoption of Consumer Guarantees Act (CGA) of New Zealand (NZ) will provide greater certainty and clarity of the proposal.

Briefly, the business judgment rule (BJR) can be defined as a doctrine that protects officers and directors from personal liability only if they have acted in good faith, with due care, and within the officer or director's authority. This paper intends to show what I have called different models of application of the BJR, that is, the implied-low model, the explicit-medium model and the statutory-high model. It examines factors that have led to these models of application and argues, based on this enquiry, that the chances of a uniform model of application of the BJR are very slim. The paper also argues that modern corporate trends of accountability and economic efficiency may lead the corporate systems to implement a medium or high model of application of the BJR. In the first chapter of this paper we discuss the basic elements and rationales of the BJR. In the second chapter, the construction of the rule in the US, the UK, Australia and the EU is addressed. In the third chapter, we determine the core and marginal factors that influence the adoption of the different models of application of the BJR. Finally in the fourth chapter we determine whether it is plausible to adopt a uniform model of application of the BJR and if the trends of accountability and economic efficiency call for a specific model of application of the BJR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: International drug law enforcement agencies have identified an apparent rise in high level drug traffickers choosing to deal in multiple different drugs. It is hypothesised that this may be a "deliberate modus operandi" and that the formation of "portfolios of trades" may make such traffickers more profitable, harmful and resilient to changes in drug supply and policing. In this paper we provide the first exploration of the extent, nature and harms of poly-drug trafficking at Australian borders.Methods: Two different methods were used. First, we used Australian Federal Police (AFP) data on all commercial level seizures at the Australian border from 1999 to 2012 to identify the proportion of seizures that were poly-drug and trends over time. Second, we used unit-record data on a sub-set of 20 drug trafficking cases and linked-cases (defined as the original drug trafficking case and all other criminal cases that were connected via common offenders and/or suspects) to compare the profiles of poly-drug and mono-drug traffickers, including: the total weight and type of drug seized, the value of assets seized, and the level of involvement in other crime (such as money laundering and corruption).Results: Between 5% and 35% of commercial importations at the Australian border involved poly-drug trafficking. Poly-drug trafficking occurred in almost every year of analysis (1999-2012), but it increased only slightly over time. Compared to mono-drug traffickers poly-drug traffickers were characterised by: larger quantities of drugs seized, larger networks, longer criminal histories and more involvement in other types of serious crime.Conclusion: Some fears about poly-drug traffickers may have been overstated particularly about the inherent escalation of this form of trafficking. Nevertheless, this suggests poly-drug traffickers are likely to pose added risks to governments and law enforcement than mono-drug traffickers. They may necessitate different types of policy responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Trade Practices Act 1965 was widely criticised as being weak and unproductive. It was a significantly watered-down version of the original Bill overseen by Garfield Barwick. Although the final form of the Act was perceived as ineffective at the time, it is now viewed as an important step towards a national competition policy and a precursor to the opening up of the Australian economy. This paper outlines the economic, political and social background to the introduction of the legislation. We specify some of the factors that explain why its creation caused controversy and its importance in initiating change in Australians' attitudes towards collusive behaviour and economic protectionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint Ventures are often used by parties in commercial enterprises where parties seek to achieve a common goal. One issue which is increasingly contentious is the extent to which, if any, joint venture parties owe each other fiduciary obligations. This paper refutes, as a dangerous heresy, the idea that joint venture relationships are discrete legal relationships that are inherently fiduciary in nature. The majority of self-styled "joint ventures" are, invariably, nothing more in legal terms than contracts. If parties are going to be bound by fiduciary duties, over and above the contractual duties they owe each other, this will only be so by virtue of the particular arrangement they have entered into which, on a thorough examination of the facts, is found to require each party to give unstinting loyalty to the other. Recent Australian case law bears this out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulatory scholars have increasingly observed that it is not only public regulatory agencies and official enforcement action that motivate and enforce businesses' compliance with the law; in many situations, certain third parties may have greater capacity and power to motivate and enforce compliance with the law than do official regulatory agencies. This paper examines the extent to which businesses' worries about, and perceptions of pressure from, various third parties influence their internal compliance management activities and moral commitment in relation to complying with the objectives of competition and consumer protection law. Using data from a survey of 999 large Australian businesses, we find that businesses worry a lot about the reactions of a range of third parties including customers, shareholders, employees, and business partners to non-compliance. We find little evidence that these worries have much impact on what businesses actually do. However, perceptions of risk of complaints do influence what they do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The TRIPS Agreement subsumes and applies the earlier international law of intellectual property (notably the Paris and Berne Conventions), but is typically distinguished from this juristic heritage by the still controversial reframing of intellectual property law as trade law, and by the more rigorous and compelling character of the dispute settlement mechanism that purportedly gives it 'teeth'. The threat of 'trade sanctions' would suggest that a realist assessment of the likely practical impact of TRIPS dispute settlement would govern national policy choices, more than compliance viewed as an end in itself. This paper reviews the actual interests defined and defended in TRIPS dispute settlement and seeks to illuminate the true character of the TRIPS Agreement as a regime of intellectual property standard-setting within a trade law framework. It concludes that practical experience confirms that a theoretical reconciliation of the supposed tension between intellectual property and 'real' trade law, and the development of an integrated, systematic jurisprudence of the TRIPS Agreement as the most robust defence of legitimate domestic policymaking on knowledge economy issues are now overdue, recalling that the true interpreter of the treaty text — the one ultimately bound to deliver on the promises of public welfare embedded therein — is a domestic policymaker seeking in good faith to establish an optimal balancing of interests through the practical craft of domestic policymaking, rather than a political or legalistic abstraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]