In UK and US company law and corporate governance, a highly influential economic theory views the company, and the rules related thereto, as a nexus of contracts for organising business activity. This so-called contractarian theory of the company depicts fundamental corporate governance arrangements as a form of private ordering, in which rules are spontaneously produced in the absence of formal legal intervention. This paper draws upon broader empirical evidence of real world private ordering to make two essential arguments, which provide much-needed nuance to the idealised view of spontaneous governance found in the contractarian analysis. First, it emphasises the significance of a distinctive and essential correlative and causal connection between hierarchy and the development and nature of private orders. Secondly, it highlights the ways in which the state positively interacts with the purported self-regulatory capability of the market to produce these uneven endogenous rules.

This paper considers some of the difficulties arising from how English law conceptualises certain types of security interests over IPRs, and the problems arising from dual registration systems. This analysis is informed by a critical comparison of the current English doctrine, alongside the US system and the proposals from UNCITRAL. It is argued that attempts to regulate a world of integrated goods (whereby goods and software are inextricably interconnected), through unintegrated regimes of legal governance of security interests over goods and IPRs, is unsustainable. It will thus be argued that reform of security interest law generally (to bring about a functional system of security) and a single register for security interests whether over goods or IPRs is necessary. Specific recommendations to deal with problems concerning purchase money security interests, and third-party purchasers, are put forward.

In this paper, we consider the Leveson inquiry's use of a narrative device – the policy cycle – to justify the need for a break with the past. We challenge that narrative, which runs through much of the literature, and posit a more nuanced and complex account of the politics and history of press inquiries, drawing upon the political science literature. We then reflect upon the implications of our findings for the future of press regulation.

Justification of a voluntary vaccination policy in England and Wales rests on tenuous foundations. Two arguments against voluntary vaccination are gaining ground. The first is that globalisation necessitates preparedness strategies for pandemics. Assuming sufficient supply, compulsory vaccination of adults and children constitutes a potential policy option in the context of a severe, vaccine-preventable pandemic outbreak. The second argument is that children have a right to preventive medicine and thus to vaccination. The influence of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its emphasis on parents as the trustees of their children's best interests, and the increasingly global nature of our collective and individual responsibilities with respect to the transmission of vaccine-preventable disease present challenges to the right to refuse vaccination on our own behalf and on behalf of our children. Exploring methods of compulsion and persuasion utilised across Europe, the USA and Australia, this paper argues that necessity and proportionality must be reassessed, and national public health law and policy setting out a graduated and proportionate approach to compulsory vaccination developed as a matter of priority.

Faced with growing pressures for accountability and increasing complexity of legal work, the international legal community has focused attention on support for the rule of law. Taking a workplace perspective, this study develops and tests an individual-level measure of support for the rule of law in the context of the Canadian public sector. Results from a national survey of government-employed lawyers reveal that increasing work demands have a detrimental effect on perceived ability to uphold the rule of law in the daily execution of work tasks. This negative pressure is moderated by social support in the workplace, with diminishing effect. Lawyers in criminal law practice appear more negatively affected by work demands than those in civil or common law practices.

International surrogacy agreements involve a child born to a surrogate mother who is of a different nationality to the commissioning parent(s) in a state other than that of which the commissioning parent(s) are nationals or reside. Many of these arrangements lead to children being born stateless, which deprives that child of many rights that are directly linked to one's nationality as well as causing significant practical problems, such as difficulty in obtaining a passport. In undertaking the first Public International Law analysis of nationality and international surrogacy agreements, we map out how various provisions can be used to guarantee protections against statelessness. Accordingly, we argue that the drafting of a proposed new convention is not the ideal solution in this respect, and should not be to the detriment of the ratification and implementation of the relevant conventions that we identify; in particular, the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. We argue that these protections offer the most meaningful protection in the short term and should be used to inform any future protections under the proposed Convention. We conclude by encouraging the advancement of Public International Law arguments when petitioning in a domestic context on behalf of stateless international surrogate children.

The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (the CRoW Act) serves as an example of the way in which ideology can frequently become a casualty of realpolitik. Wider access to the countryside was a pillar of Labour Party general election manifestos from the 1950s until the introduction of the CRoW Act. This article examines the antecedents and emergence of this statute to determine whether the eventual form of the rights of access under the CRoW Act represent a missed opportunity to grant public rights over private land.