Steven Vaughan

This book provides an empirically grounded, in-depth investigation of the ethical dimensions to in-house practice and how legal risk is defined and managed by in-house lawyers and others. The growing significance and status of the role of General Counsel has been accompanied by growth in legal risk as a phenomenon of importance. In-house lawyers are regularly exhorted to be more commercial, proactive and strategic, to be business leaders and not (mere) lawyers, but they are increasingly exposed for their roles in organisational scandals. This book poses the question: how far does going beyond being a lawyer conflict with or entail being more ethical? It explores the role of in-housers by calling on three key pieces of empirical research: two tranches of interviews with senior in-house lawyers and senior compliance staff; and an unparalleled large survey of in-house lawyers. On the basis of this evidence, the authors explore how ideas about in-house roles shape professional logics; how far professional notions such as independence play a role in those logics; and the ways in which ethical infrastructure are managed or are absent from in-house practice. It concludes with a discussion of whether and how in-house lawyers and their regulators need to take professionalism and professional ethicality more seriously.

This book provides an empirically grounded, in-depth investigation of the ethical dimensions to in-house practice and how legal risk is defined and managed by in-house lawyers and others. The growing significance and status of the role of General Counsel has been accompanied by growth in legal risk as a phenomenon of importance. In-house lawyers are regularly exhorted to be more commercial, proactive and strategic, to be business leaders and not (mere) lawyers, but they are increasingly exposed for their roles in organisational scandals. This book poses the question: how far does going beyond being a lawyer conflict with or entail being more ethical? It explores the role of in-housers by calling on three key pieces of empirical research: two tranches of interviews with senior in-house lawyers and senior compliance staff; and an unparalleled large survey of in-house lawyers. On the basis of this evidence, the authors explore how ideas about in-house roles shape professional logics; how far professional notions such as independence play a role in those logics; and the ways in which ethical infrastructure are managed or are absent from in-house practice. It concludes with a discussion of whether and how in-house lawyers and their regulators need to take professionalism and professional ethicality more seriously.

This perceptive book provides an exploratory, explanatory and normative account of the EU Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), and its regulator, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).With more than one million words of official ECHA guidance to accompany and underpin the 516 pages of REACH, comprehension of these cooperative regimes is often confounded. Through rigorous analysis of REACH and ECHA's guidance, this book offers a critical insight into hybrid new governance, the situation whereby hard law is conjoined with soft law. Steven Vaughan uses his practical and academic expertise in environmental law to present an accessible and multidimensional account of the core elements of REACH and its associated guidance. The overarching discussion challenges existing assumptions about new governance to establish a basis for academic commentaries on EU chemicals regulation and hybridity in law and governance.Acute and discerning, this book will act as a useful reference tool for environmental and public law scholars and students interested in EU chemicals regulation, new governance and hybridity. Legal practitioners and policy makers alike will find value in the acumen into REACH for both advisory remarks and areas of potential reform.