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The legal devices crafted within large organizations are a key component of legal endogeneity theory (LET). While symbolically complying with legislation, legal devices allow organizations to infuse managerial logics into the legal field, which eventually diverts law from its initial political goals. Although the LET has considered legal devices such as anti-discrimination guidelines and grievance procedures, this chapter argues that contracts also constitute a locus of symbolic compliance and contribute to the eventual endogenization of regulation. Supplementing LET with a focus on legal intermediation, this chapter explores how contracts are crafted and used by large organizations to respond to regulatory pressure. While other legal instruments are unambiguously managerialized from the outset, contracts are highly versatile legal objects that perform the seemingly opposite functions of symbolically complying with regulation and serving substantive commercial purposes. This discussion of the role of contracts as compliance mechanisms is based on an in-depth empirical study of the French retail industry and its response to a set of regulations that aimed at making their business practices fairer.

Regulators can adjust penalties to compensate for incomplete monitoring of regulated parties that are subject to legal rules, but compensating penalty adjustments often are unavailable when regulated parties are subject to legal standards. Incomplete monitoring consequently invites greater noncompliance under standards than under rules. This chapter develops a model that quantifies some of the specific tradeoffs that regulators face in designing standards regimes under incomplete monitoring. The model also considers the extent to which suboptimal compliance due to incomplete monitoring is likely to result in deadweight loss in different settings.

This paper aims to promote corporate culture (CC) of compliance to ensure responsible business by motivating self-felt and self-imposed strategies by corporations in Australia. It argues that the way “legal compliance” is pursued in Australia may develop undesirable features within corporate internal affairs ranging from adverse reactions to resentment rationalising or concealing of misconduct. This study showcases that the integration of corporation and ethical values in the compliance governance is inevitable to sustain productive CC and public trust in businesses.

This research is based on existing primary and secondary legal resources and different reports, including the Royal Commission’s Report 2019 and public submissions. It attempts to establish a claim that a self-felt and self-motivated approach to legal compliance contemplated by commitment and devotion to the company, and its consumers instead of external control can achieve consistent and positive outcomes that benefit both the company and its stakeholders.

While the sanction-deterrence based legal directives provide a strong and sophisticated foundation for detecting and punishing inappropriate culture and have traditionally been effective in fostering compliance, the inclusion of ethical values in the regulatory approach and self-led corporate strategies are required to stimulate sustained compliance, accountability and public trust.

There has been a dearth of intellectual inquiries (to the best of the author’s knowledge) about the role of CC and self-imposed corporate strategies in ensuring legal compliance. This paper will contribute to filling this gap in the legal literature and the wider academic deliberation on the standard and effectiveness of CC.

This research is the author’s original work and has not been submitted elsewhere for publication.

The purpose of this article is to examine whether, and if so, to what extent, noncoercive isomorphism determines mandatory disclosure compliance at a later stage of an accounting reform.

The analysis of compliance is based on data from 289 Swedish municipalities for 2016, which is nearly two decades after the initial legal reform in which mandatory requirements were imposed by the Swedish government in an effort to harmonize financial reporting practice. Following the standard approach in the literature, an unweighted compliance index was used as dependent variable. Proxies for municipal accounting networks and involvement in professional government accounting associations were used to explain individual municipalities' levels of compliance.

Differences in individual municipalities' levels of compliance were strongly related to the financial reporting practice of other municipalities in their accounting network. These results suggest that normative and mimetic isomorphic pressure stemming from these local networks, where accounting departments continually meet and share experiences, is a very potent force. In contrast, isomorphic pressure stemming from involvement in activities offered by professional government accounting associations is generally not a potent force at this stage.

In settings where municipal accounting networks exist, it may be effective to stimulate de facto harmonization by directing information, education and other efforts toward the professional environment in which these networks operate.

Unlike prior literature, the data in this study are from a later stage of a public sector accounting reform.

Public procurement is widely used to promote objectives of an economic, environmental and social nature, such as the economic development of disadvantaged social groups. This article elaborates a detailed taxonomy of such “horizontal” policies. This study is valuable, first, to facilitate analysis of the practical phenomenon of horizontal policies and of the policy implications of different approaches and, second, to illuminate and develop the relevant regulatory frameworks under national and international regimes. The taxonomy is based on three key distinctions between the following: 1. policies limited to securing compliance with legal requirements and those that go beyond such requirements; 2. policies applied only to the contract awarded and those that go beyond it; and 3. nine different mechanisms by which policies are implemented in the procurement process.

This study aims to evaluate blockchain as an e-government governance model. It assesses its alignment with legal frameworks, emphasizing robustness against disruptions and adherence to existing laws.

The paper explores blockchain’s potential in e-government, focusing on legal, ethical and governance aspects. It conducts an in-depth analysis of blockchain’s integration into data governance, emphasizing legal compliance and resilient security protocols.

The study comprehensively evaluates blockchain’s implementation, covering privacy, interoperability, consensus mechanisms, scalability and regulatory alignment. It highlights governance’s critical role in ensuring legal compliance within blockchain paradigms.

Ethical and legal concerns arising from blockchain adoption remain unresolved. The study underscores how blockchain challenges its core principles of anonymity and decentralization in e-government settings.

The framework outlined offers potential for diverse technological environments, albeit raising ethical and legal queries. It emphasizes governance’s pivotal role in achieving legal compliance in blockchain adoption.

Blockchain’s impact on legal and ethical facets necessitates further exploration to align with its core principles while addressing governance in e-government settings.

This study presents a robust framework for assessing blockchain’s viability in e-government, emphasizing legal compliance, despite ethical and legal intricacies that challenge its fundamental principles.

This paper aims to highlight resolution of Islamic finance dispute by common law-oriented courts in Nigeria with respect to Sharīʿah non-compliance and legal risks thereof, as well as the lesson to learn from Malaysia in that regard. This is with view to ensuring Sharīʿah compliance and legal safety of Islamic finance practice as prerequisites for sustainability of the Nigerian Islamic finance industry.

A qualitative method was used; interviews were conducted with different categories of experts and primary data collected in relation to Sharīʿah non-compliance and legal risks in adjudicating Islamic finance dispute by civil courts and the role of expert advice as basis for court referral to Financial Regulation Advisory Council of Experts. A doctrinal approach was adopted to analyse relevant legislative provisions and content analysis of secondary data relevant to applicable provisions in matters of finance before civil courts.

The paper discovers an indispensable role of conventional financial regulations in sustaining Islamic finance industry. Appropriate laws for Islamic finance under the conventional framework foster legal safety and Sharīʿah compliance of Islamic finance activities in related cases handled by courts. Nigeria civil courts can aid sustainability of Islamic finance when so equipped and enabled by laws that address apparent Sharīʿah non-compliance and legal risks in judicial dispute resolution. Inadequate legal provisions for dispute resolution breeds Sharīʿah non-compliance and legal risks in Islamic finance, undermine its prospects and stand inimical to its sustainability.

This research is limited by its focus on Sharīʿah non-compliance and legal risks alone, which emanate mainly from judicial resolution of Islamic finance dispute by Nigerian civil courts.

This research seeks to motivate a determined and deliberate regulatory action and change in approach towards addressing apparent risks associated with Islamic finance while resolving disputes therein by civil courts. It has implications on common law jurisdictions generally that adopt similar approach as Nigeria's while introducing Islamic finance into their conventional finance framework.

Dispute resolution and other regulatory functions of civil courts are important to Islamic finance though apparently overlooked while introducing Islamic finance in Nigeria as in other emerging jurisdictions. This research ascertains the role of the civil courts as indispensable for Islamic Financial Institution (IFIs) operations and demonstrates that such courts are needed for the development and sustainability of Islamic finance industry. The research demonstrates the end-to-end requirement of Sharīʿah compliance of Islamic financial transactions as absolute and needs be ensured and guarded at dispute resolution level by properly equipped courts.

This paper proposes a holistic institutional approach to provide insight into the policy reforms necessary to progressively achieve compliance with internationally recognized labor-related human rights. Drawing on institutions theory from political economy, the paper reframes international legal norms as holistic institutions, comprised of rules, social norms, and actual behaviors, the so-called rules of the game. In this way, problems in implementing labor-related human rights that may result in violations of international law are also considered as employment practices and, like other employment practices, are embedded in a web of formal and informal rules – institutions that govern work and employment. Based on the understanding that institutions contribute to violations, this holistic institutional approach also includes a framework to improve regulation and compliance based on Harold Koh's compliance theory from international law. The approach is illustrated using the example of forced obligatory overtime in textile assembly (maquilas) in Honduras and Nicaragua.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the distribution of mutual funds around the world, including a background on the lack of sales of US funds offshore and initial practical legal and compliance considerations regarding fund structure, multi‐jurisdictional compliance, and strategic approaches.

From the perspective of a legal practitioner with hands‐on experience in this area, the paper analyzes possible legal and compliance reasons why US‐registered funds have not benefited from recent developments in the international distribution of mutual funds and do not yet enjoy widespread investment flows from retail foreign investors. The paper discusses some of the practical issues around offshore‐domiciled fund structural considerations, then outlines a few critical considerations asset management companies that their legal counsel and compliance personnel should engage in prior to launching and selling offshore funds to international investors.

The paper reveals that strong tax considerations appear to be a major reason why US funds have not been successful offshore, effective offshore options have developed as alternatives, and serious compliance and legal traps for the unwary remain in this complex multi‐jurisdictional area.

A synthesized multi‐jurisdictional review reveals an inconsistency among countries due to the varying stages in regulatory maturity. This means there may be further opportunity in sharing and making more consistent such regulatory regimes and optimizing capital flows and investment choices among otherwise likely similar emerging sets of investor classes.

Strong consideration should be given to making US funds more competitive offshore via changes in the tax code. Continuing caution should be practiced as fund managers new to this area find it necessary to compete internationally for assets.

This paper sets forth a summary compendium of multijurisdictional legal and compliance knowledge heretofore contained in multiple practice areas with limited availability of focused resources to business decision makers.

The aim of this paper is to describe, analyze and explain the level of compliance of accounting practices with legislation and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) within the Swedish water and sewerage sector.

The empirical data are based on a document study of the annual full cost accounting reports for the financial year 2010. We obtained complete data from 250 of Sweden's 290 municipalities. The data are analyzed by statistical methods. The explanations are based on an institutional theory.

Most of the organizations surveyed in this study had taken measures in line with the new regulations, but none of them had adapted fully to the new requirements. Thus, we suggest that the industry has responded to the new regulation by compromise and avoidance. The statistical analyses show that compliance with legislation and GAAP is associated with legal form, minority governance, fee, tax base, population growth and audit firm.

This paper provides insight into the factors that explain compliance with accounting regulation. Future research would benefit from researching the decision process when organizations choose to comply or not to comply with specific accounting regulations in the public sector.

Few prior studies focus on the actual compliance of accounting practices at the municipal level in relation to accounting regulation and the factors that explain the level of compliance. Knowledge of the factors that explain compliance to accounting regulation will benefit from future policy decisions on regulation and auditing of public sector accounting.