Editorial

Citation

Gale, C. (2013), "Editorial", International Journal of Law and Management, Vol. 55 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlma.2013.01055daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Law and Management, Volume 55, Issue 4

Issue 4 of Volume 55 brings five articles from around the globe to our attention.

Clive Smallman, a former co-editor of this journal, Liang Guo and Jack Radford bring us “A critique of corporate governance in China”. They assert that the Chinese Government has made efforts to strengthen the effectiveness of corporate governance in state-owned enterprises. However, existing research shows that some governance mechanisms that are effective in Western countries have no significant or indeed negative impacts on firm performance in China. An apparent reason for this is the strong relationship between state-owned enterprises and the government. Based on a literature review and secondary data sources, this is a fascinating start to the issue.

Paul Gordon Dickinson then writes about “SMEs and the business reality of Estonia’s tax regulation environment”. The article examines academic literature and the taxation regulatory environment in Estonia in relation to small and medium enterprises. The objective of the paper is to identify key areas of the taxation regulatory environment which affects SME’s and assess and link important academic literature in relation to those areas with the empirical research. In effect to explore that business reality including Estonia’s Soviet historical background and compliance with her EU membership taxation obligations.

Third comes Divakara Babu Chennupati, Rajasekhara Mouly Potluri and V.S. Mangnale writing on “India’s Right to Information Act, 2005: a catalyst for good governance”. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and assess the efficacy of one of India’s possibly path breaking and trend setting enactments of recent origin, namely, Right to Information Act, 2005 in promoting transparency, accountability and probity in governance process at the national and sub-national level and how it is useful as a potent legal tool in fighting against and preventing maladministration, bad governance and venality in the governance process at different levels of administration in India. Again, an article with resonance globally.

Next we have Geoff Dean and Petter Gottschalk who talk about “Police leadership roles: empirical study of management attitudes”. This paper presents empirical results from a study of attitudes of police managers to different leadership roles in their jobs in two police districts in Norway. Once more, comparisons can be drawn with other jurisdictions while reflecting that a well managed police/enforcement agency is necessary anywhere for business and the rule of law to flourish.

Finally, David Terpstra, André Honorée and John Friedl talk about “The influence of the gender and race of the judge and the type of discrimination charge on court case outcomes”. Here, the outcomes of 401 randomly selected employment discrimination cases were examined by utilizing chi square analysis to test the interaction effects of race and gender along with four different charges of employment discrimination. Yet again, considerable food for thought in any jurisdiction.

As ever, please enjoy!

Chris Gale