Principles of Contemporary Corporate Governance

Jean Jacques du Plessis is a Professor (Corporate Law) in the Deakin Law School, Deakin University (Australia) and an Extraordinary Professor in the Faculty of Law, University the University of the Western Cape (South Africa). He developed and taught a 1-year corporate governance Graduate Diploma in South Africa in 1998 (this was one of the first such courses in the world) at the University of Johanesburg. He also developed a Corporate Governance Postgraduate Unit (MLM706) for Deakin University in 2004 and redirected the content of that Unit to reflect the content of the first edition of Principles of Contemporary Corporate Governance. Jean also publishes actively in the area of corporate governance, with more than 100 articles published in refereed Australian and international journals. He is co-author of several books, published in Australia, Germany and South Africa. He is an Alexander von Humboldt Scholar and received the Anneliese Maier Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundations for a 5-year period (2013-18). He assisted the South African Government with its Corporate Law Reform Program. This resulted in the South African Companies Act 71 of 2008, which became law in April 2012. He has been involved in that Reform Program since 2004. He was also the Head of the Deakin Law School (2000-02), President of the Corporate Law Teachers Association (CLTA) (2008-09) and became a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) in October 2011. Jean teaches in the areas of corporate governance, corporate law and business law.

Now in its fifth edition, Principles of Contemporary Corporate Governance offers a comprehensive introduction to the rules and regulations of corporate governance systems. It takes an inclusive stakeholder approach to examine how companies apply corporate governance principles in the private sector.

Part I. Basic Concepts, Board Structures and Company Officers: 1. The evolution of 'corporate governance', corporate theories, 'essential' principles and some contemporary debates and issues; 2. Recent development and debates; 3. Corporate governance of stakeholders and corporate social responsibilities (CSRs); 4. Board functions and structures; 5. Types of company directors and officers; Part II. Corporate Governance in Australia: 6. Regulation of corporate governance and role of regulators; 7. Accounting governance Helen Kang; 8. Directors' duties and enforcement of liability; Part III. Shareholder Activism And Business Ethics: 9. Shareholder activism; 10. Business ethics and corporate governance; Part IV. Corporate Governance In International and Global Contexts: 11. Corporate governance in the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, India and Singapore Lécia Vicente, Suren Gomtsian, Matthew Berkahn, Poonam Puri, Irene-marié, Akshaya Kamalnath Esser and Luh Luh Lan; 12. Corporate governance in the EU, the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance, and corporate governance in Germany, Japan and China Jeroen Veldman, Tineke Lambooy, Rosalien Van 't Foort-Diepeveen, Alexander Scheuch, Souichirou Kozuka, Luke Nottage and Chao Xi.