LAWS3303 Corporate Finance and Securities Regulation

The availability of units in Semester 1, 2, etc. was correct at the time of going to press but may be subject to change.

Credit: 6 points Availability: Semester 2 Old unit code: 200.303

Outcomes: Students acquire (1) a working knowledge of the law governing the equity and debt capital of corporations; and (2) an in-depth understanding of the topic or topics prescribed for the written assignment.

Content: This unit examines advanced topics in corporate law and regulation. The areas of corporate finance and securities regulation are intimately connected in that the law of corporate finance deals with the process by which companies raise capital from both public and private sources through the creation of financial products, while the law of securities regulation pertains to the rules of the public marketplace in which these products can be sold. The private marketplace for such products is, to a larger degree, unregulated (or deregulated in some cases) and is better studied in the context of units covering the areas of banking, securities, commercial law and international finance.

Consequently, while the unit touches on topics from those areas, as well as from economics and corporate insolvency, its principal focus is on the intersection between the public and private law aspects of the equity capital of corporations.

Guest lecturers with specialised expertise are invited to participate. Topics include (1) an overview of the mechanisms of corporate finance; (2) an analysis of private law aspects of debt and equity finance; (3) a review of controls on the public solicitation of investments (securities regulation); and (4) some of the principal offences and civil penalty provisions of the Corporations Act 2001, particularly those found in Parts 2D, 5.7B, 5.8, 7.10, 9.4 and 9.4B of the Act. Special attention is paid to insider trading, market manipulation, insolvent trading, and a director's duty to act honestly, with due care and diligence, and not to make improper use of his or her position.

Assessment: This comprises a two-hour written examination (66.67 per cent) and a written assignment of approximately 5000 words on a prescribed topic (33.33 per cent).

Supplementary assessment is not available in this unit except in the case of a bachelor's pass degree student who has obtained a mark of 45 to 49 and is currently enrolled in this unit, and it is the only remaining unit that the student must pass in order to complete their course.

Unit Co-ordinator(s): Robert Cunningham

Location: UWA (Crawley)

Mode: on-campus

Unit Rules:

Prerequisites: LAWS3322 Corporations Law

Contact hours—seminars: 2 hrs per week; plus tutorials where appropriate

Unit Web Page: http://www.uwa.edu.au/page/103447

Note: Some unit web pages are still under construction and will be available in 2009.

Prescribed Reading

Ford, H. A. J. and Austin, R. P. Ford and Austin's Principles of Corporations Law, latest ed.: Butterworths

Assistance with study skills, including English language skills, is available free of charge from Student Services for all enrolled students (see http://www.studysmarter.uwa.edu.au/). Student Services location: Second Floor, South Wing, Guild Village; telephone: 6488 2423.

Books and other material wherever listed may be subject to change. Book lists relating to 'Preliminary Reading', 'Recommended Reading' and 'Textbooks' are, in most cases, available at the University Co-operative Bookshop (from early January) and appropriate administrative offices for students to consult. For first-year units the Bookshop will endeavour to make available photocopies of book lists for individual units. Books marked with an asterisk (*) are available in paperback.

Unit Resources

Unit Co-ordinator

Robert Cunningham