Corporate Standards and Legal Rules

Legal Standards, Enforcement, and Corruption

Stricter laws require more incisive and costlier enforcement. Because enforcement activity depends both on available tax revenue and the honesty of officials, the optimal legal standard of a benevolent government is increasing in per capita income and decreasing in officials’ corruption. In contrast to the “tollbooth view” of regulation, the standard chosen by a self-interested government is a ...

Rules, Standards and Geeks

Ownership Structure, Legal Protections and Corporate Governance

This paper surveys the issues and devises an analytical framework for policy makers and policy advisors concerned with corporate governance. The framework takes a functional approach, identifying six functions provided by a governance system. The paper highlights the possibilities and limits to governance reform through the adoption of legal protections and the use of ownership structure. I cau...

Corporate Communication Standards, Practice and Issues

Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development is a project of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). The project was made possible by the support of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). IIED is a company limited by guarantee and incorporated in England. Reg. No. 2188452. VAT Reg. No. GB 440 4948 50. Registered Charity No. 800066 Mining, Min...

The “Reasonable Man” and other legal standards

In the common law of negligence, an individual breaches the duty of due care if she fails to act as would a “reasonable man” under the circumstances. A natural question, first posed by Rubinstein [8], is whether the “reasonable man” can be derived from the views of actual agents. Rubinstein introduced an axiomatic model and showed that there does not exist a non-dictatorial aggregation method w...