May 24, 2019
Publication: Global Investigations Review
A team of Kobre & Kim attorneys – Shaun Wu, Daniel Lee, Ryan Middlemas and Jae Joon Kwon – detail how the rising global emphasis on legal and corporate compliance is impacting East Asian countries that have historically lacked the practice of monitorships, in the first edition of Global Investigations Review’s Guide to Monitorships.
“There are numerous reasons why East Asia has not traditionally adopted this mechanism. The primary reason is that the legal regime in most East Asian jurisdictions does not provide for the appointment of a monitor,” the team explains. “At the cultural level, governmental authorities are reluctant to have a private party conduct an oversight role to ensure compliance and many view this as the government’s responsibility.”
Despite these differences in structure, the rise in monitorships imposed by both outside governments and quasi-government authorities has increasingly affected East Asia-based organizations, leading to a shift in the way these counties view compliance actions. “Although at a relatively nascent stage, monitorship regimes organically developed in the region are beginning to spread their wings, particularly in East Asian jurisdictions that maintain a common law legal system and strong links with jurisdictions such as the United States where monitorship is more common.”