Timothy A. Gelatt Dialogue on the Rule of Law in East Asia: Climate Change in Asia-Pacific
Panel 4: Corporate Governance and Climate Change in Asia-Pacific
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
8:00 PM – 9:30 PM (Eastern Time)
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This event is co-sponsored by the APEC Study Center at Columbia University.
About the Event
States take the center stage at global climate negotiations, but corporations sit squarely in the crosshairs as contributors to climate change, casualties of the fallout, and indispensable participants in any response. Governments, investors, and publics across Asia-Pacific are increasingly demanding that corporations do more to address the climate crisis. Jennifer G. Hill at Monash University School of Law, Yumiko Miwa at Meiji University School of Commerce, and Umakanth Varottil at National University of Singapore School of Law will discuss changing views on the social role of corporations and corporate governance in Australia, India, and Japan from a comparative perspective. Bruce Aronson will moderate the discussion.
About the speakers
Bruce Aronson is a resident affiliated scholar at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at NYU School of Law and a non-resident research associate at the Japan Research Centre at SOAS, the University of London. He also serves as an outside director at a listed Japanese pharmaceutical company. He has been a tenured professor of law at universities in the United States and Japan and a corporate partner at a major New York law firm. His main area of research is comparative corporate governance with a focus on Japan. He is co-editor of a textbook, Corporate Governance in Asia: A Comparative Approach (with J. Kim).
Jennifer G. Hill is the inaugural Bob Baxt AO Professor of Corporate and Commercial Law at Monash University Faculty of Law and director of the Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies. Professor Hill is an internationally recognized legal scholar in the field of comparative corporate law and governance. Her recent scholarship has focused on corporate culture and other governance issues, shareholder stewardship and activism, directors’ duties and transnational legal orders, common ownership, private ordering by shareholders and directors, and executive compensation. A number of her papers have been reprinted in the Corporate Practice Commentator as among the Ten Best Corporate and Securities articles of the year in North America. Her research has formed the basis for law reform and has been cited in government reports and by courts in Australia and the United States. Professor Hill is a member of the European Corporate Governance Institute and chair of its Research Member Engagement Committee. She served as a member of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s External Advisory Panel, and is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.
Yumiko Miwa is a professor at the School of Commerce of Meiji University in Tokyo. Her research focuses on the role of institutional investors in corporate governance. She is also an outside director of the Eisai Co., Ltd., a Japanese pharmaceutical company.
Umakanth Varottil is an associate professor at the National University of Singapore School of Law. He specializes in corporate law and governance, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate finance, with a specific focus is on India and Singapore. He has co-authored or co-edited five books, published articles in international journals and founded the IndiaCorpLaw Blog. He has also taught on a visiting basis at law schools in Australia, India, Italy, New Zealand, and the United States. Professor Varottil is an editor of the Oxford Business Law Blog, Indian Law Review, Asian Journal of Comparative Law, and Singapore Journal of Legal Studies. He is also a research member of the European Corporate Governance Institute. Before entering academia, Umakanth was a partner at a leading law firm in India. During that time, he was ranked as a leading corporate/mergers and acquisitions lawyer in India by the Chambers Global Guide.
