Professions, Professional Standards and Capital Markets in the 21st Century: Regulatory Engagement, Design and Strategies

Funding: 2015: $20,000
2016: $20,000

Project Member(s): Clarke, T.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Australian Research Council (ARC Linkage Projects)

Start year: 2014

Summary: The aim is to advance academic knowledge of professional obligation within capital markets. The objective is to develop practical mechanisms to test and validate oversight programs designed to advance professional standards within the established professions of law and audit and those who aspire to that status (i.e. financial advisers and broker/dealers). The research uses an innovative conceptual framework that delineates rights, duties and responsibilities and measures capacity to deliver stated commitment to market integrity, thereby attending to the specific and pressing problems faced by the partner organisations. We provide warranted trust in the commitment of the professions to higher standards, thereby restoring market confidence. The research links regulatory effectiveness to delivery of five core outcomes: substantive compliance, warranted commitment to ethical standards, effective deterrence, enhanced accountability and reduced financial, regulatory and reputational risk. This holistic approach is designed to lead to a demonstrable improvement in professional standards. The research program helps equip the legal and audit professions in Australia with an opportunity to reflect critically on practice and the extent to which internal organisational processes, including codes of conduct and compliance programs, may facilitate, inhibit, deviate from or conflict with professional standards. Second, the research addresses still unresolved theoretical questions of what constitutes professional purpose, accountability and responsibility and how these can be managed

Publications:

Clarke, T 2025, The Global Financial Crisis and Regulation: A Concise Guide, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Kingsford Smith, D, Clarke, T & Rogers, J 2017, 'Banking and the Limits of Professionalism', UNSW Law Journal, vol. 40(1), no. 1, pp. 411-455.

Clarke, T 2016, 'The search for sustainability in financial markets: carbon bubbles, shifting tectonic paradigms, and natural capital coalitions', Law and Financial Markets Review, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 139-149.
View/Download from: Publisher's site

Clarke, T 2015, 'The Long Road to Reformulating the Understanding of Directors' Duties', Seattle University Law Review, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 433-487.

Keywords: Professional standards, capital markets, regulation

FOR Codes: Legal Practice, Lawyering and the Legal Profession, Professions and Professionalisation, Corporations and Associations Law, Business Ethics, Legal practice, lawyering and the legal profession

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.