Corporate Governance: Codification or Self-Regulation? - Is SOX a Viable Solution for New Zealand?

Master's Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Law - Comparative Legal Systems, Comparative Law, grade: B+, University of Canterbury (Law School), language: English, abstract: The stock market has gained extraordinary significance over recent years. Large proportions of society invest in equity markets in order to save for their retirement. Various bodies exist to fight abuses by executives of publicly owned companies. Parliament has created the New Zealand Securities Commission (SEC), an independent Crown entity in terms of the Crown Entities Act 2004, to fight 'white collar fraud' and the abuse of business ethics and the law. Numerous scandals worldwide but especially the Enron case in the United States of America (USA) at the beginning of this decade shocked investors and led to a decrease in shareholder confidence. Investors lost their trust in corporate governance techniques and the credibility of managements. In the 1930s, in the aftermath of the 1929 stock exchange crash in the USA, Berle and Means ascertained the underlying problem of corporate governance as the separation of ownership and power. In accordance with Adam Smith, they explained that, as a basic human trait, executives never apply the same diligence when running a company as the owner of the same company might apply. This fundamental understanding is the reason for the necessity of corporate governance rules. As a pro-tection of shareholder interests, the interests of the owners of the company, the regulator tries to set standards which create investor confidence and security. By now the large majority of nations have implemented some form of corporate gov-ernance regime. The US government has tried to counter fraud and investor scepticism by adopting a statutory corporate governance code called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 (SOX). New Zealand, on the other hand, opted for a more voluntary ap-proach to governance regulation based on principles rather than legal norms, which impose no legal obligation on affected parties. Farrar disapproves of his approach and calls New Zealand's principles 'bland provisions'. He fears a decrease of investments in the New Zealand market if it does not follow the US lead quickly. This paper tries to evaluate Farrar's proposal of imitating the US example. Section II portrays corporate governance regulations currently in place in New Zealand. It focuses predominantly on listed public companies and shows shortfalls in this area. Section III illuminates SOX and its provisions. The paper provides explanations ma-jor fraud scandals in the USA and discusses in the light of these findings the effectuality of SOX. It concludes that the US legislation has numerous pitfalls and fails to achieve necessary fraud prevention. Based on this understanding, Section IV discusses the advantages and disadvantages of a principle-based approach to corporate governance regulation. It is shown how selfregulation paired with a strong legal framework provides sufficient protection for investors and how such an approach values the theory of free markets. This author believes strongly in the efficiency of free, unregulated markets and eventually concludes with a few humble suggestions on how New Zealand might change their corporate governance regime.