In this chapter we establish the foundations for extracting principles of contemporary corporate governance. We begin the chapter by providing our own definition of the term ‘corporate governance’. The reason for this is to enable the reader to gain a good understanding of how we approach the principles of contemporary corporate governance in this book. We have adjusted the definition of corporate governance in each of the previous four editions, as well as in this edition. The reason is that corporate governance is a dynamic concept and we strive to keep the definition updated to reflect contemporary principles of corporate governance.

In the previous chapter we saw that modern community expectations require that all types of directors fulfil their duties of care and diligence meticulously. No longer may directors hide behind ignorance or inaction; nor are the duties of non-executive directors seen as being of an intermittent nature. All directors have a positive duty to challenge, inquire and investigate when controversial or potentially risky matters are discussed at board level. In this chapter we see that there are various types of company directors and officers, although the basic position is that the law will expect the same duties of all directors and that senior employees and senior executives owe duties to the company comparable to those of directors.

The principle of relativity requires that no interaction can propagate instantly. Gravitational waves (GW) must exist, propagating with the same speed as light. The specific characters of GW are predicted by Einstein’s general relativity (GR). After decades of efforts to develop detectors, on 11 February 2016, the LIGO and Virgo Collaboration published the discovery of a GW.

The elements of GR relevant for GW production, propagation and detection. How the GR field, which is the dimensionless metric tensor, differs from the other fundamental fields, which have physical dimensions. The instruments and the discovery. After the first observation, dozens of gravitational signals have been detected, the vast majority from merging black holes and one, on 17 August 2017, from the merger of neutron stars. In this case, electromagnetic signals are expected, and have been detected, providing unique information to astrophysics and to fundamental physics as well. The measurement of the speed of the GW and the establishment of a bound on the mass of the graviton.

Chapter 10 takes you to your own professional future. The handy ‘Twelve Principles’ summary enables teachers and school leaders to orient their teaching towards harnessing linguistic diversity for their own professional and personal development, and for the wellbeing and academic achievement of students.

It will be clear from Chapter 4 that we consider regulation of corporate governance to be prominent in a good corporate governance model. This chapter builds upon that model by focusing on the regulation of corporate governance in particular. It deals specifically with the various mechanisms, legislative and non-legislative, which regulate the corporation and which set in place, collectively, a framework by which good governance can be achieved. Overall, this collective body of mechanisms forms part of what has recently been described as an emerging ‘law of corporate governance’. The regulation of corporate governance in Australia is achieved through binding and non-binding rules, international recommendations and industry-specific standards, the commentaries of scholars and practitioners, and the decisions of judges. The legislature acts to facilitate the achievement of good corporate governance directly by refining corporate law, and indirectly through the entire panoply of rules and regulations which have an impact on the corporation and its activities. There are other agencies that also assume a role in the regulation of corporate governance.

Chapter 9 moves further forward into considering students’ futures, specifically linguistically diverse students, and how teachers can support the development of ‘futures thinking’ for many contexts.

Australia has a long tradition of shareholder activism. What has changed in recent years is the nature of the shareholders who are taking activist positions. Institutional investors have always exercised some measure of influence over the management of large public corporations, but recent developments in shareholder activism have brought these manoeuvres into the public spotlight. Australia’s corporate landscape has featured a range of high-profile boardroom battles with activist investors. This chapter explores the nature and scope of shareholder activism in Australia (including reference to international developments) and its implications for corporate governance.