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The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the Board Neutrality Rule and the primacy afforded to shareholders during takeovers is justified under common law and policy.

The paper provides a detailed assessment of the role play by the board neutrality rule and whether this is supported by takeover law and Company law. A review of case law and statutes is provided. The paper is largely analytical.

The paper finds little justification for the continued imposition of the Board Neutrality Rule.

The paper adds to the growing body of research literature which has analysed the role played by the Board Neutrality Rule during takeovers.

Since their creation through the Industrial Training Act 1964 to hear appeals against levies, the jurisdiction of industrial tribunals has grown considerably. One aspect of this jurisdiction, unfair dismissal, is examined here. Basic principles related to the law of unfair dismissal are examined. The practice and procedure of an industrial tribunal solely in connection with unfair dismissal cases are examined in greater detail. A case study is used to illustrate the important aspects of procedure. Appendices give relevant forms and extracts from the appropriate Code of Practice.

The purpose of this summary is to provide excerpts of selected Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Regulatory Notices and Disciplinary Actions issued in March, April, and May 2011.

The paper provides excerpts from FINRA Regulatory Notice 11‐15, Low‐Priced Equity Securities; 11‐19, Books and Records; 11‐21, Fidelity Bonds; 11‐24, Customer Order Protection; 11‐26, Financial Responsibility.

11‐15: Firms are reminded to consider the risks associated with low‐priced equity securities when extending credit in a strategy‐based or portfolio margin account. 11‐19: The new rules require member firms to make and preserve certain books and records to show compliance with applicable securities laws, rules and regulations; in general, the new rules streamline, strengthen and clarify existing requirements. 11‐21: FINRA Rule 4360 requires each member firm that is required to join the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) to maintain blanket fidelity bond coverage with specified amounts of coverage based on the firm's net capital requirement, with certain exceptions. 11‐24: FINRA Rule 5320 generally provides that a member firm that accepts and holds an order in an equity security from its own customer or a customer of another broker‐dealer without immediately executing the order is prohibited from trading that security on the same side of the market for its own account at a price that would satisfy the customer order, unless it immediately thereafter executes the customer order up to the size and at the same or better price at which it traded for its own account. 11‐26: New FINRA Rules 4150, 4311, 4522 and 4523, in combination with the consolidated financial responsibility rules that the SEC approved in November 2009, enhance FINRA's authority to execute effectively its financial and operational surveillance and examination programs.

These are direct excerpts designed to provide a useful digest for the reader and an indication of regulatory trends. The FINRA staff is aware of this summary but has neither reviewed nor edited it. For further detail as well as other useful information, the reader should visit www.finra.org

This paper is concerned with accounting for leasehold property. While property professionals are familiar with commercial and technical aspects of leases, recent proposals offer serious implications beyond the notional historical reporting of an entity’s financial position. Current proposals issued by the ASB will markedly impact upon the financial position reported by businesses holding leasehold properties, with consequent effects upon their reported profitability and their ability to raise finance. This paper examines the current position, whereby leases are regarded as either a finance or an operating lease. It then examines the conceptual framework in which accountants view the existing lease reporting provisions, examining the unease the current provisions cause. Finally, it discusses the most recent proposals and offers a commentary upon responses to them. It concludes with a warning to the owners and users of leasehold property to be ready for change ‐ or to make their voices known.

March 1, 1968 Trade Union — Rules — Construction — Printing trade — Offer of vacancies to returning out‐of‐trade member — Much of work traditionally casual — Union's policy to offer regular vacancies to returning members — Whether obligation to offer casual vacancies — Whether returning member “out of employment” — Dispute over offer of vacancies — Whether breach of contractual agreement concerning “conditions on which… members… shall… be employed” — Trade Union Act, 1871, s.4(1).

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation in Malaysia had raised various responses from many parties involved when the new tax was introduced in 2015 until its abolishment in 2018. GST complexity has been stated as part of the reasons for its resistance and abolishment. The purpose of this paper is to identify causes of GST complexities during its implementation in Malaysia.

This paper draws on causes of tax complexity from previous studies and conducted semi-structured interviews with tax experts. The respondents comprised of subject matter experts in GST and the findings are based on their numerous years of experiences handling clients with diverse backgrounds.

Findings from this study are categorised into legal complexity and declarative complexities. Almost all the causes of complexities from prior studies were encountered by Malaysian businesses. This study concluded that the most likely reasons for the abolishment of GST in Malaysia are: numerous rules and exception to the rules (e.g. 35 tax codes, gifts rules, 21-day rules), frequent changes of GST rulings and guidelines, GST computations that were too difficult for mixed supply and process of GST refund that were onerous and lengthy.

Limitations of this paper include reliance on the respondents’ ability to accurately and honestly recall details of their experiences, circumstances, thoughts or behaviours that are being asked.

Despite the abolishment of the GST in Malaysia, it is pertinent to identify the causes of GST complexities that can be learnt by the relevant authorities. Measures can be formulated to mitigate the identified GST complexities to ensure high compliance among businesses with other existing taxes or new taxes (if any) to be introduced in the future. This includes addressing the competency of RMCD officers and businesses on the rules and regulations, minimal rules and exception to the rules, a simplified GST computations for mixed supply and a systematic refund process.

The research method used is a flexible and powerful tool to capture the voices and the ways respondents make meaning of their experience dealing with the GST matters. The findings reveal a deep understanding of the issues from the views of the experts in the field.

Most account opening agreements used by US brokerage firms contain a standard predispute arbitration clause requiring customers to submit all disputes relating to the account to arbitration conducted according to the rules of a self‐regulatory organisation. Brokerage firms also routinely place a clause in their customer agreements designating the law which will govern the agreement. Under a rule of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD or Association) — IM 3110(f)(4) (Rule 3110(f)(4)) — brokerage firms may not place in a customer agreement ‘any condition which … limits the ability of a party to file any claim in arbitration or limits the ability of the arbitrators to make any award’. This rule places important limitations on the way firms utilise choice‐of‐law clauses. In light of recent legal developments, it is increasingly important for firms to be aware of the issues raised by the rule.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not a calendar time anomaly exists in the number and discount of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) from 1980‐2004.

Regression analysis was used on data from SEOs offered from 1980 to 2004 to determine the significance of the SEO discount over days‐of‐the‐week and the significance of factors relating to SEOs offered on a Monday. The characteristics of Monday SEOs were compared to those offered on other days of the week.

Monday has the fewest number of SEOs with a statistically significant larger offer price discount, on average, than issues done on other days of the week. This has been attributed to the Monday effect, in part to the implementation of Rule 10b‐21, which led to reduced short‐selling pressure and reduced the uncertainty associated with the weekend effect on the part of the issuing firm.

This paper adds value to the finance literature in that it extends the research on calendar‐time anomalies in financial markets. It also adds to the existing research on SEOs and notes characteristics in this particular section of the markets that may be important to both issuers and investors.

This paper first generally describes the requirements under US federal law to register as a commodity pool operator (CPO), and the disclosure, reporting and record keeping obligations which normally apply to registered CPOs. It then discusses in detail two particular sources of relief from certain of these disclosure, reporting and record keeping obligations — an Advisory issued by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on 11th April, 1996, and CFTC Rule 4.7 — and compares the requirements to qualify for, and relief available under, the Advisory and CFTC Rule 4.7.

This article provides a comprehensive look at suitability rules, first in the traditional brokerage context and then in terms of their application to online brokerages in general. It outlines the arguments made by the online brokerages to differentiate their world from traditional broker‐dealers, and offers hypothetical scenarios in which suitability concepts may apply in the online brokerage setting. The authors suggest that online brokerages should be allowed time to determine the appropriate rules in light of how the technology itself evolves over the next several years.