Risk and Due Diligence Unit – Swinburne Update

The Introduction to Risk and Due Diligence Unit at Swinburne is going well this year with 17 students with a diverse global representation.  An aspect of the course is a tutorial presentation on some aspect of the law in different jurisdictions.  Some very interesting presentations have been made.

The student from Switzerland described the direct democracy process.  Direct democracy involves a citizen-sponsored amendment to the Constitution.  100,000 voter signatures are required, which if achieved requires a referendum.  To pass into law, a double majority in both the national popular vote and a majority of the (26) cantonal popular vote must be in favour of the amendment.  The successful amendment must then be implemented by the federal parliament.

A recent amendment was to ban golden handshakes for executives, especially for executives departing poorly performing companies.  Apparently most politicians and business leaders advised against this amendment as acting against the national interest, but it was nevertheless adopted with the highest voter turnout in recent memory.

Being about half way through the semester now, it seems like everyone, including the Lecturer is learning something new each week!

The course at Swinburne is presented each week at the Hawthorn campus (VIC). We also welcome guests, so if you have an interesting case study or project example that you would like to share with the students, please get in touch.