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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of evolving developments in international, regional and EU law including the UK and Turkish jurisdictions for the liability of corporate businesses for modern forms of exploitative labour practices described as the modern forms of slavery.

In the first part, this paper outlines international, regional and EU instruments, UK and Turkish jurisdictions in relation to modern forms of slavery. The second part reviews legal frameworks for corporate liability for modern forms of slavery.

Slavery, slavery-like practices or some other exploitative practices are prohibited by numerous international law instruments starting from 1904. Apart from old forms of defined exploitative practices, multiple relevant current exploitative practices, called contemporary or modern forms of slavery exist all over the world. Under various international or regional conventions signatory States have been held responsible for exploitative practices by the international or regional courts or supervisory bodies, yet businesses were largely overlooked as a participating partner in the global movement to eradicate modern forms of slavery. For many years, multi-national businesses have engaged with various voluntary international corporate social responsibility initiatives in response to demands to operate in a socially responsible manner. There is a growing global recognition of the role corporate businesses can and should play in tackling crime and exploitative practices. A number of initiatives at the international and EU level and the introduction of the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, (2010 – effective from 2012), the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, the French Act on Due Diligence of Corporations and Main Contractors 2017 (loi sur le devoir de vigilance), the Australian Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018, the Dutch Child Labour Due Diligence Act 2019, (which is due to come into effect in mid-2022), reflect this recognition.

This paper argues that it is important for companies to use available tools, participate in joint initiatives and advocate for binding international and regional instruments and effective national legislation and action – all aimed at ending business involvement in modern forms of slavery.

The purpose of this paper is to contend that the dominant voluntarism approach to the accountability of transnational corporations (TNCs) is inadequate and not fit-for-purpose. The authors argue for the establishment of an international legal mechanism for securing the accountability of TNCs, particularly in the context of developing countries with notoriously weak governance mechanisms to protect all relevant stakeholders.

The study adopts insights from the fields of management and international law to draw out synergies from particular understandings of corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and international human rights. The challenges to governance in developing countries with regard to securing the accountability of TNCs are illustrated with the Nigerian experience of oil-industry legislation reform.

The specific context of the experiences of developing countries in Africa on the operations of TNCs particularly commends the need and expedience to create an international legal regime for ensuring the accountability of TNCs.

Mainstream research in this area has focused mainly on self and voluntary models of regulation and accountability that have privileged the legal fiction of the corporate status of TNCs. This paper departs from that model to argue for an enforceable model of TNC’s accountability – based on an international mechanism.

This paper aims to highlight provisions that may attract corporate criminal liability (CCL) in legislation and regulations enacted in Malaysia. Further, this paper identifies gaps or obstacles in the implementation of CCL in Islamic banks (IBs) in Malaysia.

This research adopts the qualitative methodology. More specifically, it uses normative legal research by focusing on primary and secondary data obtained from legislation, regulations, decided case laws, guidelines, law textbooks and bank annual reports in relation to CCL provisions. It also conducts semi-structured interviews with different categories of experts, including legal practitioners (lawyers), regulators from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and Securities Commission Malaysia, officers of the Attorney General's Chambers and officers from legal departments in IBs.

The results conclude that IBs should implement the law on CCL because they are considered corporations. It is also found that not all IBs complied with CCL provisions brought corporate offenders before the court.

This research is restricted by its specialisation in CCL in IBs in Malaysia.

The CCL provision has to be implemented effectively by IBs to achieve the benefit. However, not all IBs implement CCL provision properly. The understanding created by the interview data illuminates the challenges in implementing CCL provisions. Thus, this paper seeks to change the approach in the implementation of CCL provisions by IBs in Malaysia.

The paper touches upon a new area, notably CCL in IBs, which is not well researched in past literature. Although there is a vast research on CCL, corporate crime in IBs in Malaysia is still an unexplored area. This study gives light on the implementation of CCL provisions in IBs.

This paper aims to observe the development of the Sharīʿah governance framework (SGF) and practice in Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) in Malaysia.

The study is a qualitative-based research. It uses various documents and content analysis approach to understand and analyze the structure, process and practice of SGF in IFIs in Malaysia.

It is found that the Central Bank of Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia, has attempted to develop a comprehensive framework of Sharīʿah governance for IFIs in Malaysia. The framework governs the practice of the industry, covers stakeholders’ scope of duties and responsibilities and provides details on processes and procedures in the operations of IFIs to achieve the objective of Sharīʿah compliance. To maintain the relevance of the SGF to the needs of the industry, the framework has also been updated recently in 2017. The amendments aim to strengthen the effectiveness of Sharīʿah governance implementation within the Islamic finance industry.

This study attempts to comprehensively examine the evolution of the SGF Sharīʿah governance framework for IFIs in Malaysia. The Malaysian model of the SGF is unique and could be emulated by other countries in developing the Islamic finance industry in their respective jurisdictions.

The purpose of this contribution is twofold: at the empirical level, it is shown how in the relationship that subjects are encouraged to construct with their bodies major implications for workers' well-being can be found; at a theoretical level, attention is drawn to the importance of framing the different practices workers may display towards digital wellness programmes not just in terms of acceptance or resistance, but also in terms of appropriation.

Empirically, this study concentrates on the pilot study conducted by a large manufacturing firm that decided to implement a digitally assisted corporate wellness programme. The experimentation involves a sample of the company's workers. The 24 participants were interviewed at the beginning, during the programme and at its end, for a total of 69 interviews. Interviews were transcribed and analysed through a template analysis.

This research emphasizes how workers' well-being manifests in the relationship subjects are fostered to construct with their body and, in parallel, how workers may play an active and unpredictable role in corporate wellness programmes.

Differently from the current literature that frames workers' reactions towards digital corporate well-being initiatives in mainly polarized ways, this contribution leads to a less dichotomic and more nuanced interpretation of the “impacts” wellness programmes may have, showing how workers may display practices not just of acceptance or resistance, but also of appropriation.

The purpose of this study is to provide the conditions for governance effectiveness and explain why the same rules often result in not the same norms.

The author proposes a “corporate governance culture” concept explaining the differences within corporate governance institutions and making it possible to measure their effectiveness. Based on a literature review that included 186 research studies published in the corporate governance field, the author found that most (160) concern structural numerical variables. Only 26 refer to behavioural and cultural issues, and they support the idea of an interdisciplinary approach to governance problems.

A significant contribution of this paper is that it proposes an integrative framework that operationalises psychological, sociological and philosophical issues that influence corporate governance mechanisms. The proposed concept can reanimate the debate about the need for tight governance regulations or leaving room for a loose governance regime.

The idea of “corporate governance culture” explains the divergences identified in studies on corporate governance mechanisms, pointing out behavioural and cultural issues as crucial aspects of governance bodies.

This study examines how specific micro-level macroeconomic indicators influence corporate performance volatility among US corporate bodies in the short run.

The study employs error correction autoregressive distributed lagged (ARDL) model (ECM) to examine how micro-level variables influence volatility associated with corporate performance in the short run.

This paper finds that disaggregated or micro-level variables examined, tend to exhibit features that are not readily apparent from the aggregate variable from which such variables are derived. For instance, reported empirical estimate suggests that, growth in expenditures on services and nondurable goods tend to lower volatility associated with corporate performance, whereas government expenditures and expenditures on durable goods rather worsens volatility associated with corporate performance, all things being equal. Additionally, presented empirical estimates further provide evidence suggesting that macroeconomic uncertainty and inflation uncertainty significantly moderate or influence the extent to which disaggregated variables impact corporate performance volatility.

Compared to related studies in the reviewed literature, this study rather examines volatility associated with corporate performance instead of the corporate performance indicator itself. Additionally, this paper also examines how disaggregated variable instead of aggregate variables impact such volatility. Finally, the moderating role of key macroeconomic conditions in such a relationship is also examined.

Considering that the heterogeneity in the composition of deliberation and management bodies can promote a differentiated impact on earnings distribution policies of companies, the purpose of this paper is to examine the marginal influence of female participation on the board of directors and executive board regarding decisions associated with dividend policy in companies operating in Brazil.

The sample is composed of non-financial companies listed on the B3 Stock Exchange between 2010 and 2015, which encompasses 261 companies (1,084 observations per year). The tests aim at explaining the probability of earnings distribution and the payout level of companies through variables that measure the female presence – considering that the explanatory economic attributes of decisions over dividends are kept under control. The econometric analysis was carried out through the descriptive analysis of the variables and LOGIT and TOBIT tests of inference estimated with fixed effects and meeting all econometric requirements.

The proportion of women in both deliberative and executive bodies affects marginally the dividend policy of Brazilian companies. The female presence in management bodies contributes to a higher probability of earnings distribution and increase in the payout level; such tendency is moderated when women are in the board of directors; so, we do not reject the hypothesis of female influence on dividend policy decisions in Brazil.

One can find such investigations in foreign environments, but such tests had not been accomplished in Brazil so far. We discuss, therefore, in an unprecedented way, the heterogeneity in deliberative (governance) and executive (management) bodies and its outcomes in strategic decisions made in Brazilian companies, focusing on the female insertion and on fundamental decisions that are related to the relationship among stakeholders, which is the dividend policy per se.