Academic Profile

I was appointed to a chair at Sheffield in January 2013. Before coming to Sheffield, I lectured at the Universities of Queensland, Cambridge, Sheffield (2003-5) and Warsaw. I teach and research in the fields of company law and corporate governance, broadly conceived. My latest research examines regulatory responses to the global financial crisis.

I studied law at Cambridge and wrote my doctorate at the European University Institute in Florence. Before becoming an academic I practised as a solicitor with Herbert Smith and the Treasury Solicitor.

Qualifications

PhD, European University Institute, Florence;
BA/MA(law), University of Cambridge;
Diploma in Legal Practice, College of Law.

Teaching and Learning

I encourage students to think about the policies behind the law, and to make connections with other subjects they have studied earlier in their degree. As company law is highly topical, I try to relate what we are studying to current events in the corporate and financial worlds. I also try to introduce economic perspectives wherever possible, explaining them in simple terms in order to demystify them. I believe it is essential for students to understand these perspectives – and their limits – because they have such a firm grip on policymakers’ imaginations. More specifically, I encourage students to consider the best way in which the social costs companies can create can be dealt with, or governed, and the role the law should play in this. In doing so, I draw on my research on corporate governance and the financial crisis, as well as my involvement in the ‘Sustainable Companies’ project based at the University of Oslo. I use a variety of teaching methods in the seminars I lead. In the module on the Law of Private Companies, we often focus on problem solving and applying the law to the facts. This can then be used as the basis for a discussion of the policies that lie behind the law. The module on the Law of Public Companies is more discursive, and is research-led. Lectures provide an overview of the area, and often give rise to lively discussions. In seminars, the emphasis is on small group work on presentations to the seminar group, with students drawing on lectures and their own independent research. I encourage students to read widely around the area of corporate governance, drawing on legal and other social science materials. Students are then given detailed feedback on their presentations, both by their peers and by me, as seminar leader. I try to ensure that I am accessible to students to discuss their research, whether at the end of lectures, or during my office hour.

The modules I teach are:

Undergraduate	Postgraduate
The Law of Private Companies	Company Law and Corporate Governance
The Law of Public Companies	European and Comparative Corporate Governance

Research Interests

• Company Law
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Law & Economics
• Theory and Practice of Regulation
• Financial Markets

Member of the Institute for Commercial Law Studies Research Cluster.

Areas of Research Supervision

• Company Law (including European and comparative)
• Corporate Governance
• Regulation
• Law & Economics
• Financial Crisis
• Financial Markets
• Corporate Social Responsibility

Key Publications

Johnston, A. (2012) Governing Externalities: The Potential of Reflexive Corporate Social Responsibility, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge, Working Paper No 436

Johnston, A. (2012) Recent Developments in Stakeholder Theory: from the Productive Coalition to the Governance of Social Cost. In Vitols, S and Heuschmid, J (eds), European Company Law and the Sustainable Company – A Stakeholder Approach (ETUI/GOODCORP, Brussels)

Johnston, A. (2011) Corporate Governance is the Problem Not the Solution: A Critical Appraisal of the European Regulation on Credit Rating Agencies. Journal of Corporate Law Studies, 11(2), 395-441

Johnston, A. (2011) Facing up to Social Cost: The Real Meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility. Griffith Law Review, 20(1), 221-244

Johnston, A. (2010) Varieties of Corporate Governance and Reflexive Takeover Regulation. In U. Bernitz and W-G Ringe (eds), Company Law and Economic Protectionism. OUP

Johnston, A. (2009) EC Regulation of Corporate Governance. Cambridge University Press.

Recent Invited Papers and Keynote Lectures

‘Facing up to Social Cost: the Real Meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility’, 2011 Michael Whincop Memorial Lecture, Griffith University Law School, Australia
‘Shareholder value still calling the shots: European regulation of executive remuneration in banks’, presented at conference on Post-Crisis Trajectories of European Corporate Governance, University of Leeds, September 2012
‘Between Market Integration and National Diversity: Some Reflections on the Difficult Evolution of European Corporate Governance Regulation’, invited contribution to workshop on ‘Perspectives on the Evolution of Corporate Law and Corporate Governance’, Monash University, October 2011
‘Constructing Sustainability’ and ‘Constructing Sustainability: the Case of ISO 26000’, presented at ‘Sustainable Companies’ conference, University of Oslo, September 2011
‘Arbitrability of Company Law Disputes' presented at the 'China and International Commercial Dispute Resolution' International Workshop and Roundtable, held at Xi'an Jiaotong University School of Law, May 2013 in Xi'an, China.
'Employee Voice in Corporate Control Transactions' presented at the ‘Voices at Work’ conference held at The Work Foundation in London, June 2013 (with Wanjiru Njoya, LSE).

Key Projects/Grants

Title/Description:	The Legal and Regulatory Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility
Awarding Body:	UQ New Staff Research Start-Up Fund
People Involved:
Years Funded for:	2009-2010
Amount:	AU$11,966

Title/Description:	'Trading Corporations' – Corporate Theory, Constitutional Definition and Pragmatic Implications
Awarding Body:	TC Beirne School of Law Contestable Research Fund
People Involved:	Graeme Orr
Years Funded for:	2009
Amount:	AU$2,223.65

Professional Activities and Recognition

Research Associate at Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge
Member, Sustainable Companies Project, University of Oslo