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This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the extent of alteration institutional characteristics, i.e. legal origin and corruption levels, may have on the signaling effects of auditors’ reputation, underwriters’ reputation and ownership retention on initial public offering (IPO) initial returns in OECD countries.

Cross-sectional data composed of 6,182 IPOs from 30 OECD countries are used for 2003-2012. Ordinary least square with multiple linear regressions is used to test the hypotheses.

The findings indicate that the legal framework and corruption level of a country alters the signaling effects of underwriters’ reputation, auditors’ reputation and ownership retention in an IPO environment. These three variables mitigate information asymmetry, signal firm value to potential investors and ultimately decrease IPO initial returns. This relationship is more significant in the civil law countries. Corruption levels negatively moderate the relationship in the common law and Scandinavian civil law countries but have no significance in the German and French civil law countries, indicating the importance of the signaling variables in these two civil law countries.

This study examines the extent of the alterations that the legal framework and the corruption levels cause to the signaling relationship between auditors’ reputation, underwriters’ reputation and ownership retention on IPO initial returns in selected OECD countries.

The aim of the paper is to highlight the differences between the corporate governance systems in Anglo‐Saxon and Continental European countries, and to argue that legal convergence or isomorphism may become more of a problem than a solution in countries where an issue like minority shareholders' protection is the primary corporate governance problem.

The paper uses a number of surveys to support the trend of legal and ownership convergence in Anglo‐Saxon and Continental European countries. The main concern, in Continental European countries, is the expropriation of minority shareholders by the dominant major shareholders, whereas in Anglo‐Saxon firms the main concern is the expropriation of shareholders by the dominant managers (agency problem). Then it analyses the legal initiatives to determine the appropriateness of the legal framework with the fundamentals characteristics of corporations.

Regardless of the trend for ownership dispersion and convergence of securities laws and regulations observed in the last decade, the main characteristics of ownership structure remain unchanged and the two systems of corporate governance remain distinctively separate. The paper argues that legal‐regulative convergence is not adequate to achieve real corporate governance system convergence. As long as the fundamental differences of the corporate governance systems differ, legal and regulating isomorphism may be the cause of problems and not a solution.

The paper presents an alternative approach in legal‐regulatory framework formulation. It advocates the introduction of a different set of practices and legal initiatives for countries with different characteristics and corporate governance problems.

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.

This paper aims to examine the extent to which environmental rights enforcement is currently practiced in Nigeria and the relevant characteristics for the development of a legal framework for the practice of environmental rights enforcement in Nigeria, particularly in the interest of the Niger Delta region of the country. The Niger Delta region of Nigeria is rich with abundant hydrocarbon resources and plays host to numerous multinational oil companies. For over five decades, oil spills and gas flaring from the operations of these companies have polluted water bodies and degraded farmlands on which the inhabitants depend for their livelihood. However, the absence of a legal regime of environmental rights has made it difficult for inhabitants of the region to seek legal remedy against these companies.

This paper examines the extent to which environmental rights enforcement is currently practiced in Nigeria and the relevant characteristics for the development of a legal framework for the practice of environmental rights enforcement in Nigeria, particularly in the interest of the Niger Delta region of the country.

Nigeria does not have constitutional environmental rights. The legal implication of this provision is that it is not justiciable as such no court of law can exercise jurisdiction to hear any matter that is connected with the provisions of that chapter. In other words, even the government’s “constitutional” responsibility to protect the environment cannot be judicially enforced, let alone environmental rights for victims of environmental damage.

The original and significant contribution of this paper is to highlight the real issues and address them through substantive and procedural environmental rights provisions either in the constitution or positive legislations.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis on the regulation, the applicable law and the tax treatment in the operations of NPOs in developing countries.

A comparative analysis in term of NPOs legal framework governing the formation, existence, restriction and fundraising of NPOs, as well as the tax treatment for the NPOs.

The findings suggest that regulations of NPOs in these countries exhibit a mixed picture with respect to the establishment, operation, affiliation and fundraising, as well as their tax incentives and preferences. In some countries, NPOs have fewer restrictions and are eligible for generous tax incentives, while for other countries, various restrictions and lack of incentives are the norms. The legal frameworks for NPOs are burdensome and, to some extent, do not reflect the importance of NPOs as partner for development of society. The findings also suggest that tax treatments in these countries vary from simple to complex coupled with obscure tax exemptions rules.

Around the globe, authorities and society are increasingly acknowledging the important role of NPOs in dealing with social needs from basic poverty, health and sustainable environments. This study’s focus on NPOs regulation will provide an understanding for authorities to design an appropriate framework for the growth and vibrancy of the NPOs.

The purpose of this paper is to propose meta‐synthetic ideas and knowledge asset management approaches to build a comprehensive strategic framework for Beijing City in China.

Methods include a review of relevant literature in both English and Chinese, case studies of different types of support frameworks in the UK, the USA, Singapore and Hong Kong, formulation of a meta‐synthetic support framework for Beijing City, and justification of its application to policy development by various studies. Three stages of meta‐synthetic support frameworks are proposed.

The suggested meta‐synthetic support frameworks are highly appropriate for the optimisation of, and innovation in, management and services systems of government information resources. The proposed knowledge asset management approaches offer significant practical value in improving the competence and capabilities of service‐oriented government, providing a set of solutions to identified, urgent problems, including a joint administration system for creating value, a release and distribution management system for sharing and protecting value, and a licensing and authorisation management system for adding value.

This paper focuses on the formulation of a theoretical support framework for the reuse of government information resources and the justification of its effectiveness to guide policy development at strategic level. Case studies of its application at operational level are ongoing and will be discussed in future papers.

The suggested meta‐synthetic support frameworks support the efficiency, effectiveness and economy of intelligent traffic administration, good governance of value‐added services based on government information resources, and intellectual activity around city travel and traffic. The study has wide implications for the improvement of service‐oriented government performance, public satisfaction and the image of government.

The paper presents the adaptation of meta‐synthetic ideas and knowledge asset management approaches to collaboration, optimisation, innovation and compliance management issues in the reuse of government information resources. The advantages of different types of support systems and frameworks are integrated as a coherent whole for a strategic framework of legal, regulatory and standards support to China and Beijing.

This chapter presents a review about the history of how China’s environmental legal framework was built up.

The chapter explores environmental legal framework development through two paths: political path and the associated judicial path. It tries to connect the political slogans of China, under each leadership since the “Opening Up” in 1978, to the legislative development on environmental issues.

Regardless of each leadership’s political slogans, China’s economic reform and legislative development had always revolved around the objective – “revive China and its economy in the world,” which had been set by Deng Xiaoping. The “sustainable development,” that as a guiding principle, has already been incorporated into Five-Year Plans as well as China’s environmental legislation since economic reform.

Compared with previous research on this area, the pragmatical approach of this investigation confirms the originality of the research. Literature on this topic, in fact, hardly investigates China’s environmental issue by combining the analysis of the political and the legal perspectives.

Part III reviews the uses and effects of materiality as an accounting, legal, audit, and managerial concept. After mentioning several uses of materiality as a legal concept and explaining the FASB’s proposed direction to avoid an accounting definition, it goes in depth to the differences in the respective definitions, applications, practical interactions, and different nature of the legal and accounting views. It then draws on the differences between audit and accounting uses of materiality.

It counterbalances the interests and positions of the various stakeholders involved, such as investors, preparers, standard-setters, auditors, regulators, financial analysts, and other users of the financial statements. It shows that those who regulate, use, decide, and assess materiality are different subjects.

Finally, the part capitalizes on the author’s vast experience in industry to theorize a plethora of alternative and complementary models of materiality with their pros and cons.

Existing regulatory frameworks for identifying and treating historic buildings and places reflect deference to expert rule, which privileges the values of a small number of heritage experts over the values of the majority of people who visit, work, and reside in historic environments. The purpose of this paper is to explore a fundamental shift in how US federal and local preservation laws address built heritage by suggesting a dynamic, adaptive regulatory framework that incorporates heterodox approaches to heritage and therefore is capable of accommodating contemporary sociocultural values.

The overall approach used is a comparative literature review from the fields of heterodox/orthodox heritage, heterodox/orthodox law, adaptive management, and participatory methods to inform the creation of a dynamic, adaptive regulatory framework.

Tools such as dialogical democracy and participatory action research are sufficiently pragmatic in implementation to envision how an adaptive regulatory framework could be implemented. This new framework would likely require heterodox definitions of law that move beyond justice as a primary purpose and broaden the nature of legal goods that can be protected while addressing discourses of power to benefit a larger group of stakeholders.

The authors suggest that an adaptive regulatory framework would be particularly beneficial for architectural and urban conservation planning, as it foregrounds considerations other than property rights in decision-making processes. While such a goal appears to be theoretically possible, the challenge will be to translate the theory of an adaptive regulatory framework into practice as there does not appear to be any precedent for its implementation. There will be issues with the need for increased resources to implement this framework.

To date, there have been few, if any, attempts to address critical heritage studies theory in the context of the regulatory environment. This paper appears to be the first such investigation in the literature.

This paper makes the case for, and describes an effort to develop and promote the use of, model law to address HIV/AIDS in prisons. First, it outlines the concept of model law and what model law can bring to advocacy around law reform. Second, it describes why model law is particularly important to safeguard the rights of prisoners and people who use drugs. Third, it relates the methodology involved in developing model law. Three important areas of prison law and regulation related to HIV/AIDS are then described: provisions on the likelihood and duration of incarceration, including periods in pretrial detention; the legal foundation for HIV/AIDS care in prison; and the legal framework for comprehensive harm reduction services in prisons. A legislative framework to address rape and sexual violence in prison is also outlined. The paper sets out broad principles of how prison laws and regulations should be reformed to accord with human rights principles, and provides a number of examples of the specific wording of certain provisions.