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37 Bond L. Rev. 1 (2025)

handle is hein.journals/bondlr37 and id is 1 raw text is: THE EVOLUTION OF AUSTRALIAN CORPORATE LAW - LOOKING BACK TO LOOK AHEAD AKSHAYA KAMALNATH* Abstract This article aims to tell the story of the journey of Australian corporate law - its evolution, and the infrastructure supporting it (i.e., courts, regulator, and other bodies providing soft law/ guidance). It argues that the history of a jurisdiction's corporate law journey is an important consideration while attempting to tackle corporate law challenges of the present and future. The challenges of the present and future are identified as sustainable businesspractices, changing shareholderprofile, and the impact of technology on corporate activity. While these challenges are global, ie all countries are grappling with them, Australia's response has to be suited to its own local realities and these realities are reflected in the story ofhow we gothere. In telling this story, the article discusses hard law, soft law, efforts to simplify the corporations statute by the Australian Law Reform Commission, and the role ofthe courts and the market regulator in Australia. Finally, the article also contributes to the debate about corporate law convergencefrom an Australian perspective. * Associate Professor, The Australian National University, College of Law, and Academic Fellow of the Center for Retail Investors and Corporate Inclusion (RICI). I would like to thank Ross Grantham, Stephen Bottomley, Pauline Ridge, Will Bateman and Leonid Sirota for helpful discussions and/ or feedback on previous drafts. I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers.