About this Lecture

Discussants

• Dr Brian Braun (LSE)
• Janice Turner (Association of Member Nominated Trustees)

Summary

Join us for the third lecture and discussion of UK’s generational economic reform, this week focusing on groundbreaking proposals for pension and asset manager reform, and to get the City to net zero. For anyone doing trusts and company law, this is why the subject matter in the real world. This week we cover:

• how pensions funds function, including the limits of democracy in their governance, with beneficiary representation, with comparisons to Canada, Australia or the Netherlands that provide better pensions at lower cost;
• how asset managers control investment choices and shareholder voting rights, and the recent push back to ensure they have effective Environment, Social and Governance policies;
• the government’s proposals for all pensions and asset managers to align with the Paris Agreement’s goal of no more than 1.5 degrees in global warming, and the steps necessary to achieve that.

 

About this Event Series

How should Labour achieve its economic objectives, for growth, prosperity and equality in Britain? This series is based on Labour’s economic policy and legislative plans. There will be a one hour lecture with Prof Ewan McGaughey, followed by seminar discussion, joined by expert discussants including from the Institute for Employment Rights: see the Eventbrite pages. Attendees will participate in formulating a policy note for each topic, and draft amendments to Bills to fulfil the goals in each policy field.

Sources include Keir Starmer’s pledges, the Labour Manifesto, official policies, and Bills. We compare these to human right treaties that bind the UK, including the Universal Declaration (ratified by the two International Covenants of 1966), the European Convention and Social Charter. We compare existing UK legal sources to these goals, to international models, and to empirical data. Full background for each topic is in Ewan McGaughey,Principles of Enterprise Law: the Economic Constitution and Human Rights (2022) chapters 3-5, 8-17 and 20 (McG), available on the Cambridge Uni Press website.