Martin Petrin

Martin Petrin

Dancap Private Equity Chair in Corporate Governance
Associate Professor

S.J.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Ph.D., University of St. Gallen
LL.M., Columbia University
J.D., University of St. Gallen

 

Office: SSC 4084
Phone: 519-661-2111 x81098
Email: mpetrin@uwo.ca

Martin Petrin is the inaugural Dancap Private Equity Chair in Corporate Governance, jointly appointed to the DAN Department of Management and Organizational Studies and the Faculty of Law. He is a recipient of Western’s Research Excellence Award. Martin’s research interests are in corporate, corporate governance, and business law, often from a comparative perspective. Most recently, his research has focused on corporate regulation, corporate theory and the impact of AI and new technologies, and approaches to corporate and managerial liability. Martin has published widely in his areas of expertise, including as the author and editor of several books, and is a regular speaker at international conferences. Martin has practiced law with a leading international business law firm and has been admitted to the Bar in New York and Switzerland. He served as the Kwa Geok Choo Distinguished Visitor at the National University of Singapore, Distinguished Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Notre Dame London Law Program, Visiting Professor at NYU London, the Richard H. McLaren Visiting Professor in Business Law at Western, and Visiting Scholar at both the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and Private Law. In addition to his academic work, Martin acts as a consultant, with recent work in this field including a government-commissioned project on corporate law reform and consultancy work with various organizations and private parties.

SSRN author page

Selected Publications

Books

Research Handbook on Corporate Liability (Edward Elgar, 2023) (co-edited with Christian Witting)

Corporate Duties to the Public (Cambridge University Press, 2019) (co-authored with Barnali Choudhury)

Corporate Governance: Law, Regulation and Theory (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) (co-authored with Marc Moore)

Understanding the Modern Company – Corporate Governance and Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2017; published also as paperback in 2018) (co-edited with Barnali Choudhury)

The Law of LLCs (Stampfli, 2008) (co-author) [cited by the Swiss Supreme Court in v. X. GmbH, 4A.72/2012 (2012) and BGE 140 III 409 (2014)] (co-authored with Rino Siffert and Pascal Fischer; in German)

Vicarious Liability in Switzerland (Schulthess, 2004)

Articles

AI, New Technologies, and Corporate Governance: Three Phenomena, Seattle Univ. Law Rev. (forthcoming, 2024)

The Impact of AI and New Technologies on Corporate Governance and Regulation, 2024 Singapore Journal of Legal Studies 1 (2024)

Stuck in Neutral: Reforming Corporate Purpose and Fiduciary Duties, 67 Canadian Business Law Journal 291 (2023) (co-authored with Barnali Choudhury)

Lost Synergies and M&A Damages: Considering Cineplex v. Cineworld, 100 Canadian Bar Review 274 (2022) (co-authored with Jonathan Chan)

On Assessing Trustworthy AI in Healthcare: Machine Learning as a Supportive Tool to Recognize Cardiac Arrest in Emergency Calls, Frontiers in Human Dynamics & Technology (8 July 2021) (co-authored with Roberto Zicari et al.) [included as a use case in the OECD’s catalogue of AI tools and metrics (2023)]

Trustworthy AI and Corporate Governance – The EU’s Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence from a Company Law Perspective, 22 European Business Organization Law Review 593 (2021) (co-authored with Eleanore Hickman)

Corporate Management in the Age of AI, 2019 Columbia Business Law Review 965 (2019) (reprinted in Alberto Salazar, Corporate Governance and the New Technology (LexisNexis Publishing, 2023))

Group Company Liability, 19 European Business Organization Law Review 771 (2018) (co-authored with Barnali Choudhury)

Corporate Governance that ‘Works for Everyone’: Promoting Public Policies through Corporate Governance Mechanisms, 18:2 Journal of Corporate Law Studies 381 (2018) (co-authored with Barnali Choudhury)

Some Thoughts on Control and Liability in Corporate Groups, 23 Journal of Japanese Law 189 (2018) (invited symposium piece)

Regulatory Analysis in Corporate Law, 79 Modern Law Review 537 (2016)

Towards an Adaptive Economic Model for Microstates: The Importance of Company Law Reform in International Regulatory Competition, 37 The Company Lawyer 267 (2016) (co-authored with Iris Chiu and Anna Donovan)

Executive Compensation in the United Kingdom – Past, Present, and Future, 36 The Company Lawyer 195 (2015) (invited symposium piece for the OECD’s 2014 Business Ethics Conference in Paris)

From Nature to Function: Reconceptualizing the Theory of the Firm, 118 Penn State Law Review 1 (2013) (lead article; selected for presentation at the 2013 Harvard/Stanford International Junior Faculty Forum; reprinted in Jens Dammann, An Introduction to European Union Law: Cases and Materials (West Publishing, 2018))

Assumption of Responsibility in Corporate Groups: Chandler v Cape plc, 76 Modern Law Review 603 (2013)

Circumscribing the “Prosecutor’s Ticket to Tag the Elite” – A Critique of the Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine, 84 Temple Law Review 283 (2012)

Assessing Delaware’s Oversight Jurisprudence: A Policy and Theory Perspective, 5 Virginia Law & Business Review 433 (2011) [cited by VC Laster in In Re McDonald’s Corp. Stockholder Derivative Litigation (Del. Ch. C. 2023)

The Curious Case of Directors’ and Officers’ Liability for Supervision and Management: Exploring the Intersection of Corporate and Tort Law, 59 American University Law Review 1661 (2010) [cited, among others, in Ramos v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 2016 WL 4398286 (E.D. Pennsylvania 2016), Watkins v. Basurto, 2011 WL 1414135 (Tex. App. 2011), and Accurso v. Infra-Red Services, Inc., 23 F.Supp.3d 494 (E.D. Pennsylvania 2014)]

Cancellation of Fraudulent Trade Mark Registrations under the Lanham Act and the European Community Trade Mark Regulation, 11 Intellectual Property Law Bulletin 161 (2007)

The Electronic Dataroom, 3 Aktuelle Juristische Praxis 363 (2007)

Foundations of Swiss IT Law, 11 Computer & Recht 791 (2006) (co-authored with Thomas Sobbing)

The Bullying Truckdriver and Other Stories – Thoughts on the Scope of Employment under Article 55 of the Swiss Code of Obligations, Jusletter 11/2004 (2004)

Book Chapters

Corporate Governance and AI, in: Ch. Kerrigan (ed.), Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation (2nd, Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2024)

AI Regulation in Canada, in: Artificial Intelligence Act (Wendt, J. et al., eds., under contract with Nomos Publishing, expected 2024)

Theoretical Approaches to Corporate Liability, in: M. Petrin & Ch. Witting (eds.), Research Handbook on Corporate Liability (Edward Elgar, 2023)

Commentary on Partnerships (Articles 557–561 and 598–601 of the Swiss Code of Obligations), in: A. K. Schnyder et al. (eds.), Commentary on Swiss Private Law (4th ed., 2023) (in German)

Corporate Governance and AI, in: Ch. Kerrigan (ed.), Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation (Edward Elgar, 2022)

Beyond Shareholder Value – Exploring Justifications for a Broader Corporate Purpose, in: E. Pollman & R. Thompson (eds.), Research Handbook on Corporate Personhood and Purpose (Edward Elgar, 2021)

Corporate Purpose and Short-Termism, in: A. Afsharipour & M. Gelter (eds.), Research Handbook on Comparative Corporate Governance (Edward Elgar, 2021) (co-authored with Barnali Choudhury)

Economic Analysis of Corporate Law, in: A. Marciano & G. Battista Ramello (eds.), Encyclopedia of Law and Economics (Springer, 2020) (co-authored with David Gindis)

A Balancing Approach to Corporate Rights and Duties, in: M. Petrin et al., eds., Understanding the Modern Company – Corporate Governance and Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Introduction, in: M. Petrin et al., eds., Understanding the Modern Company – Corporate Governance and Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Epilogue – A Look to the Future, in: M. Petrin et al., eds., Understanding the Company – Corporate Governance and Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Commentary on Partnerships (Articles 557–561 and 598–601 of the Swiss Code of Obligations), in: A. K. Schnyder et al. (eds.), Commentary on Swiss Private Law (3rd ed., 2016)

Commentary on Partnerships (Articles 557–561 and 598–601 of the Swiss Code of Obligations), in K. Schnyder et al. (eds.), Commentary on Swiss Private Law (2nd ed., 2012)

Liability for Negligent Corporate Organisation, in A. Niggli & M. Amstutz, (eds.), Corporate Liability (2007) (co-authored with Vito Roberto)

Trademarks, in Baker & McKenzie (ed.), Developments in Swiss Corporate Law (Schulthess, 2006)

Commentary on Partnerships (Articles 557–561 and 598–601 of the Swiss Code of Obligations), in K. Schnyder et al. (eds.), Commentary on Swiss Private Law (2007)

Policy Responses, Media, Reports, and Shorter Pieces

Revisions to the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance: Sustainability in Name Only (3 November 2022) Oxford Business Law Blog (3 November 2022) (co-authored with Barnali Choudhury)

Submission to the OECD Corporate Governance Committee pertaining to the consultation on the Draft Revisions to the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance (20 October 2022) (co-authored with Barnali Choudhury)

Remedies for M&A Breach of Contract – The Case of Cineplex (23 September 2022) Columbia Law School Blog on Corporations & Capital Markets, cross-posted on the Oxford Business Law Blog (28 September 2022) (co-authored with Jonathan Chan)

Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover and Lessons for the Law (22 June 2022) The Hill Times

Submission to the UK Law Commission’s call for evidence and consultation on reform of Corporate Criminal Liability in England and Wales (23 July 2021)

Climate change poses triple threat to Canada’s energy sector (7 June 2021) iPolitics Digital Newspaper (co-authored with Barnali Choudhury)

Op-ed on new legislation concerning gender quotas on boards of directors (‘Quotenpflicht in Führungsgremien – ein Triumph der Frauen?’) (22 January 2021), Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) (co-authored with Barnali Choudhury)

Trustworthy AI and Corporate Governance (14 September 2021) Oxford Business Law Blog (co-authored with Eleanore Hickman)

Is Stakeholderism Bad for Stakeholders? (21 May 2020) Columbia Law School Blog on Corporations & Capital Markets

Is Stakeholderism Bad for Stakeholders? Some Counterarguments (23 April 2020) LinkedIn Pulse Publishing

Advised the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Toxics on the subject of law and litigation strategies for group company liability (22 April 2020)

Corporate Management in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (9 April 2019) Columbia Law School Blog on Corporations & Capital Markets

Submission to the United Nations Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights relating to the Draft Treaty on Business and Human Rights (25 February 2019)

Rethinking Group Company Liability (24 January 2019) Oxford Business Law Blog (co-authored with Barnali Choudhury)

Featured Expert in documentary on corporate finance and accounting practices (produced by educational company ClickView for usage across 2,000 secondary schools across the UK and Australia) (2018)

The British government is relying too heavily on business to make society fairer, published in The Conversation (15 May 2018) and International Business Times (16 May 2018)

Corporate Governance that Works for Everyone (15 February 2018) Columbia Law School Blog on Corporations & Capital Markets (co-authored with Barnali Choudhury)

Response to the UK Ministry of Justice’s call for evidence on Corporate Liability for Economic Crime (2017)

Quoted in Timothy Conley, ‘Germany and UK leaders fret over potential Opel job cuts’, Financial Times Foreign Direct Intelligence (28 February 2017)

Briefing Note on the Public Interest Test for Foreign Takeovers (November 2016) (solicited submission for the House of Commons Business, Energy, Industry and Skills Select Committee)

Foreword, UCL Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Vol. 5, No. 2 (2016)

Regulatory Analysis in Corporate Law (6 September 2016) Oxford Business Law Blog

Hobby Lobby and the Case for a Balancing Approach to Corporate Rights and Duties (18 May 2016) Oxford Business Law Blog

Gap Analysis of UK and Alderney Company Law (2015) (commissioned law reform report for the States of Alderney; co-author; 60,000 words)

Response to the United Kingdom Law Commission’s Consultation on Reforms in the Law of Corporate Liability (October 2013) [proposals taken forward for further consideration and discussed in the 12th Programme of Law Reform document laid before Parliament]