Bøker av Christopher Hodges

How do we cooperate - in social, local, business, and state communities? This book proposes an Outcome-Based Cooperative Model, in which all stakeholders work together on the basis of trust and respect to achieve shared aims and outcomes. The Outcome-Based Cooperative Model is built up from an extensive analysis of behavioural and social psychology, genetic anthropology, research into behaviour and culture in societies, organisations, regulation, and enforcement. The starting point is acceptance that humanity is facing ever larger risks, which are now systemic and even existential. To overcome the challenges, humans need to cooperate more, rather than compete, alienate, or draw apart. Answering how we do that requires basing ourselves, our institutions, and systems on relationships that are built on trust. Trust is based on evidence that we can be trusted to behave well (ethically), built up over time. We should aim to agree common goals and outcomes, moderating those that conflict, produce evidence that we can be trusted, and examine our performance in achieving the right outcomes, rather than harmful ones. The implications are that we need to do more in rebasing our relationships in local groupings, business organisations, regulation, and dispute resolution. The book examines recent systems and developments in all these areas, and makes proposals of profound importance for reform. This is a new blueprint for liberty, solidarity, performance, and achievement.

This book undertakes unique case studies, including interviews with participants, as well as empirical analysis, of public and private enforcement of Australian securities laws addressing continuous disclosure. Enforcement of laws is crucial to effective regulation. Historically, enforcement was the province of a government regulator with significant discretion (public enforcement). However, more and more citizens are being expected to take action themselves (private enforcement). Consistent with regulatory pluralism, public and private enforcement exist in parallel, with the capacity to both help and hinder each other, and the achievement of the goals of enforcement in a range of areas of regulation. The rise of the shareholder class action in Australia, backed by litigation funding or lawyers, has given rise to enforcement overlapping with that of the government regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The ramifications of overlapping enforcement are explained based on detailed analysis. The analysis is further bolstered by the regulator's approach to enforcement changing from a compliance orientation to a "Why not litigate?" approach.The analysis and ramifications of the Australian case studies involve matters of regulatory theory and practice that apply across jurisdictions. The book will appeal to practitioners, regulators and academics interested in regulatory policy and enforcement, and the operation of regulators and class actions, including their interaction.