Douglas Arner et al on Building Digital Payment Ecosystems: Digital Financial Infrastructure, Financial Inclusion, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Cal W ILJ)

"Building Digital Payment Ecosystems: Digital Financial Infrastructure, Financial Inclusion, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals"
Douglas Arner, Sijuade Animashaun, Yixiao Cai, Kuzi Charamba
California Western International Law Journal, Volume 55, Number 1 (2024)
Published online: March 2025

Abstract: This article examines how digital payment innovation and supporting initiatives, such as infrastructure and regulation, can foster micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) access to finance. This expanded access in turn supports broader sustainable development as reflected in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Achieving these goals requires thoughtful consideration and management of technological and a range of other risks and impacts across jurisdictions and governance levels.

     Digital payment platforms serve as collectors, aggregators and (in some cases) providers of MSME financial and other data. This supports lending, low-cost agent-assisted financial transactions, financial products, and services by conventional banks, micro-finance institutions (MFIs), and non-bank financial institutions. Importantly, the data provided by these platforms can facilitate cash flow analysis and factoring (a form of alternative credit data) in which MSMEs use receivables as collateral (complementing other forms of collateral, such as real properties) to access finance within traditional lending institutions or elsewhere. 

   As consumer confidence in e-commerce platforms boosts the digital presence of MSMEs, new markets for MSMEs (particularly small retail shops, such as “mom-and-pop” stores providing last-mile services to unbanked and underserved segments in remote areas) emerges. Yet, there have been increasing concerns among policymakers and regulators at national, regional, and international levels......(Please click here to read the full text.)

Julian Nowag on Global Antitrust and Sustainability: Law, Economics, Enforcement (Oxford University Press)

Global Antitrust and Sustainability: Law, Economics, Enforcement
Julian Nowag
Oxford University Press
Published online: September 2025

Abstract: Sustainability is a topic that is also gaining in importance for antitrust and competition authorities. The book investigates how competition law and competition authorities around the world deal with sustainability. It covers, economics, law, and enforcement matters. The book also sets out the basics of the concept of sustainability that are necessary for competition lawyers to work with such matters. It explores what economics has to say about the relationship between sustainability and competition. In the legal part, the book covers numerous jurisdictions ranging from developed to developing countries and the work of established and newer agencies. It investigates how competition law enforcement can foster sustainability and also discusses the legal tools available to ensure that competition law enforcement does not unnecessarily hinder sustainability activities by private actors. In a separate chapter, process matters and enforcement tools are considered, in particular those that are available to competition agencies to foster sustainability.

Welcome the new Global Academic Fellow Dr Pangyue Cheng!

Welcome to Dr Pangyue Cheng who joined the Faculty of Law as a Global Academic Fellow. Dr. Pangyue Cheng is a legal scholar focusing on corporate law, financial regulation, and AI governance. Her research interests encompass institutional stewardship, corporate governance, sustainability, and AI regulation. Pangyue’s work explores the legal challenges companies face in a rapidly changing global environment, particularly how shifts in investor roles, technological advancements, and increasing sustainability demands shape corporate governance and regulatory practices. Her research has been published in international law reviews and peer-reviewed journals such as the Columbia Business Law Review and the European Business Law Review.

Currently, Pangyue’s research focuses on the intersection of corporate governance, sustainability, and technological innovation. She examines how institutional investors foster corporate responsibility and long-term value creation through ESG integration. Additionally, her research on AI governance addresses the opportunities and legal challenges that emerging technologies pose to corporate systems and governance frameworks.

Pangyue holds a Bachelor of Laws from Beijing Normal University, an LLM in Corporate and Financial Services Law, and a PhD from the National University of Singapore, where she researched institutional stewardship in Chinese listed companies. Her work on ESG integration and corporate sustainability was fully funded by the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. She has been invited to share her research at esteemed institutions, including Yale University, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, the Edinburgh Centre for Commercial Law, the Society of Legal Scholars, and the American Society of Comparative Law.

Pangyue currently teaches China Company Law and Securities Regulation at the HKU Faculty of Law. She was a Fox International Fellow at Yale University and worked as a researcher on several projects at the National University of Singapore Law School. Before entering academia, she practiced law in mainland China and served as legal counsel for a listed AI company.

Frederick Long & Syren Johnstone on Applying ‘Deep ESG’ to Asian Private Equity (Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment)

"Applying ‘Deep ESG’ to Asian private equity"
 Frederick J. Long & Syren Johnstone
Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment
Published online in February 2021

Abstract: At this stage of Asia's development there is a need, and an opportunity, to establish a validation methodology that better gauges ESG implementation and sustainability aspirations in Asian private equity. Private equity, like major public market and debt investors such as Blackrock, has adopted language that suggests a proactive approach to ESG management. However, process-oriented ESG compliance presently far outstrips evidence of tangible contributions to ESG objectives and outcomes. This article describes a taxonomy of common approaches to ESG investment practices in Asian private equity and discusses their shortcomings. It then presents ‘Deep ESG’ as an alternative approach that operationalizes ESG and sustainability metrics more holistically than existing frameworks. The Deep ESG framework enables a higher level of market-led intentionality that better informs institutional investors, regulators, communities, and employees as they evaluate private equity's ‘balance sheet’ of ESG outcomes. By investing in tools for goal setting, measurement and evaluation and applying them consistently across all target and portfolio companies, private equity managers can pivot away from a defensive approach by working with stakeholders to shape constructive solutions to urgent sustainability goals.

Amanda Whitfort on the Links between Wildlife Trade, Animal Health and Human Health at the Sustainability Summit

Amanda Whitfort is in the second position from the right

Amanda Whitfort spoke in mid-January 2021 on the links between wildlife trade, animal health and human health in a sustainability summit jointly organised by the Institute of International Sustainable Development, the Hong Kong Chinese Manufacturers' Association, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Consulate General of Finland. Her newest research on the links between poor animal health and welfare, wildlife trade and COVID-19 was published this week in the Journal of Environmental Law. In her article, COVID-19 and Wildlife Farming in China: Legislating to Protect Wild Animal Health and Welfare in the Wake of a Global Pandemic​ she argues that the current legal framework to protect wild animal health, and consequently human health, is not working. In a significant part, this is because there is no international agreement to protect animal welfare. The sole international reference organisation for animal health and disease control, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), recognises that animal health and welfare are inextricably linked yet international law relating to wild animals has historically focused on the conservation or the health of the animals, and, in a few instances on both, but rarely on their links with animal welfare. In the wake of COVID-19, this omission must now be rectified. Going forward decisions about animal welfare law and policy require a global vision.