Legal Aspects of International Trade and Enterprise: HI5015 Assignment

This report examines the legal aspects of international trade and enterprise, focusing on BHP Billiton as a case study. It analyzes the legislative framework affecting the company, including the Corporations Act 2001, employment laws (Work Health and Safety Act 2011, Fair Work Act 2009), environmental laws (Environment Protection Act 1970, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999), privacy laws (Privacy Act 1988), and ASX listing rules. The report further explores the impact of international treaties, agreements, and conventions such as the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and MARPOL (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships) on BHP Billiton's operations and compliance. The analysis highlights the company's obligations and the influence of these legal and regulatory frameworks on its business practices within Australia and globally.

Running Head: BUSINESS AND CORPORATION LAW 0
Legal Aspects of International Trade and
Enterprise
HI5015
Student’s Name

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Executive Summary
Law are an important part of every economic system which regulates the behavior of
businesses there. These laws may be related to various subjects such as environment
protection, employment, and labor relations, the privacy of people and many others.
Every business has to comply with all the applicable laws of its nations. Nevertheless,
the situation is somewhere different in cases of multi-national companies which has its
operations in many countries. These companies have to follow the laws of different
nations. Further businesses are also influenced by international treaties signed by their
nations. BHP Billiton is selected as a company for the preparation of this assignment.
The company is a multinational company registered in Australia and gets affected by
many of the legislation of this county such as the Privacy Act 1988, Fair Work Act 2009,
Environment Protection Act 1970 and many others. In addition to this, a standard set by
UNESCO, UNFCCC, International convention of human rights is also applicable.

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Contents
Executive Summary...........................................................................................................1
Introduction and overview..................................................................................................2
Legislative Framework.......................................................................................................2
Treaties, Agreements, and Conventions...........................................................................4
References.........................................................................................................................7

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Introduction and overview
BHP Billiton is a global leading resource company, which has its headquarters located
in the Melbourne state of Australia (Jia and Tomasic, 2009). The company was
originally found as Broken Hill and later BHP Billiton was formed as a result of the
merger of two of the companies namely Australian Broken Hill Proprietary Company
Limited and Anglo-Dutch Billiton Plc. Company is engaged in the business of extraction
and processing of gas, oil, and minerals and has its operations in many countries
including China, India, and Japan. This is an Anglo-Australian company. Further, it is
necessary to mention here that the company is doing well in its operations and as per
the annual report of 2018, the revenue of the company from Iron ore was US$14.8
billion. More than 62000 contractors and employees are associated with the company
primarily in the Americas and Australia (Bhp.com, 2019). The company work in over 90
locations worldwide and provide employment to nearly 100000 people across the globe
(Bell, 2019).
Legislative Framework
As the company is a multi-national company of Australia, the same is required to
comply with a range of legal frameworks that include laws of different sectors. In the
following part of this report, all these legislations are discussed.
Corporations Act 2001 (Cth):- The company is registered in Australia and in this
manner, Corporations Act 2001 (CA 2001) is the main piece of legislation which is
applicable to the company. This act governs every activity of the company from
preparations of its memorandum to winding up of the same. While operating and
managing the affairs of company, directors, and officers are required to follow rules and
provisions set out under different sections of the respective act. The legislation because
of its applicability to the company affects the working of the same. Company has to
make several disclosures under the annual report as required by this act. Further
duties/obligations of directors and officers are another important area of this act which is
required to be considered while operating in Australia. Being an entity registered with
Australian Securities and Investment commission under CA 2001, all the directors well
as employees of the company are required to act with due care and diligence as
required by section 180 of CA 2001 (Austlii.edu.au, 2019). Further, these people also
required to perform other general duties mentioned under section 181, 182 and 183 of
the act.
Employment Law: - As mentioned above, the company has many employees in
Australia hence it becomes the responsibility of the organization to take care of their
interest by ensuring their health and security. Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth) is
significant legislation that applies to the company. As the name implies, this act ensure

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the safety of Australian employees at their workplace. It is federal government
legislation and every state of Australia has to comply with this. BHP Billiton also needs
to ensure that all of its employees have safety measures while working. Further health
is another factor than safety and company is also need to take care of this factor too.
Another important employment legislation is the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). This
legislation governs the relationship between employer and employee in Australia
(Easteal, 2014). In addition to this act, Fair Work Regulations 2009 is there to further
interpretation of this act. These laws provide provisions related to flexible working
arrangements, minimum entitlements and prevent employees against discrimination.
Company has its anti-discrimination policy, which is based on the Fair Work Act 2009.
This legislation affects the working of the company as all the managers of the business
are required to ensure that they make no discrimination between two of its employees
based on the provided characteristics under this act because doing so can attract heavy
penalty to the company. A further different state of Australia has different legislation on
health and safety of workers and BHP Billiton is required to comply with them. For
instance, the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 is an act of Victoria. The act
provides different obligations for the employers that they need to consider in respect to
their employees and workplace. As the company is engaged in the mining and
extracting activities, risk of physical injury is greater than the other industries and in this
manner, these employment laws become more crucial and significant.
Environmental Laws: - Belonging to a mining and extraction industry, the company has
a great responsibility towards the environment. Company has to comply with various
rules and regulations related to environmental laws. Environment Protection Act 1970 is
one out of such laws, which is applicable to BHP Billiton. This act is applicable to
throughout Victoria. This act creates a legislative framework for environmental
protection in Victoria state (Legislation.vic.gov.au, 2019). Certain principles are defined
under this act and in this manner; BHP Billiton has to consider these principles in its
operations. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is another
important act that the company is required to follow. These environmental legislations
affect the working of the company as it restricts and limits many of its activities.
Privacy Laws: - In Australia, the Privacy Act 1988 is the main privacy law. It is federal
legislation, which is applicable throughout Australia. BHP Billiton has its own privacy
policy, which is applicable to all of its stakeholders. According to this policy, the
company is required to comply with the privacy laws of nations. This policy is developed
as per the required provisions of the Privacy Act and stipulates the manner in which a
company may collect and use personal information of their partners, customer, and
other stakeholders. Company may face issues of a data breach if the same breaches
any provisions of this act.
ASX Listing and Corporate governance Rules:- BHP Billiton has its shares listed of
Australian Stock Exchange and therefore listing rules provided by this exchange are
applicable to the company. In conjunction with listing rules, the exchange also provided
principles on corporate governance, which every company is required to follow. These
regulations and corporate governance principles also affect working of BHP Billiton as in

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its operations have to comply with these rule and principles. ASX governance principles
consist of certain recommendations for the behavior of business and BHP Billiton has to
consider them completely taking business decisions as well as while dealing with its
stakeholder.
All the above-mentioned laws are applicable to the company in a mandatory manner
and affect the working of the same. As the company is engaged in mining activities and
hence the same is also required to take some approvals from the government in the
form of mining lease license, retention license, and other prospective licenses.
Treaties, Agreements, and Conventions
In the above-mentioned part, local laws of Australia applicable to the company were
discussed. This is to mention that in addition to these laws, some other legislative
framework is also applicable to the company because of some treaties and agreements.
The company itself signed some of these agreements, whereas some of the treaties are
entered into by Australia with various countries and international organizations. In other
words, this is to mention that Australia signed vicarious international treaties and
membership of the different international organization. Now as per the standard
requirement of these organizations, businesses of Australia, including BHP Billiton has
to fulfill some requirements, which affect its working.
UNFCCC: - The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an
international environmental treaty developed on the issue of climate change and
Australia also signed this treaty. As per the requirements of this treaty all, the member
countries are required to reduce their carbon emission and to make significant support
to reduce the negative impact of climate change on the environment. In addition to this
Australia also signed Paris climate change negotiations. Being a member of this treaty,
Australia has some expectations from its businesses as they play an important role in
the economy. To support the efforts and promises of Australia, CEO of BHP Billiton
published a public statement regarding climate change initiative. Company is committed
to emit 12% or nations greenhouse gas emission. The company also developed its
climate change policy. As an effect of the Paris Agreement, the company is engaged in
the promotion of product stewardship, management of climate-related risk, and
reduction of operational greenhouse gas emission. Company is considering greenhouse
emission issue very seriously and this can be understood by the fact that in the year
1996, the company allowed a budget of US$1 billion to address the issue of
Greenhouse emission (Bhp.com, 2019).
Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Human rights are another issue in today’s
world. Australia is already a member of the United Nations. For this reason, the same
has to comply with all the requirements and instructions made by this international
organization on different subjects. Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one of the
significant document in the history of human rights and set out a common standard for
all nations and people with respect to human rights (Un.org, 2019). In its business
operations, BHP Billiton supports the fundamental human right stipulated under the

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above-mentioned declaration. The company works as per the directions of UN Guiding
Principles on Business and Human Rights. In addition to this, the same as also consider
UN Global Compact principles. The code of conduct of this company is developed in a
manner that secures and protects human rights.
International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL):- Mitsui
O.S.K. Lines Ltd, a transport company of Japan declared a joint study liquefied natural
gas with five companies including BH Billiton. This announcement was made on 20th
January 2017 in Singapore. There were requirements of the development of stringent
standards with respect to emission reduction and this joint research was an advance
help for the same. Furth to say this research was in line with MARPOL. S BHP Billiton
was already a signatory of Bali agreement that time and hence the same had to take
part in this research.
Production and supply of Australian Obligated Nuclear Material is always a concern for
the Australian government. Further, whenever this material is subject to bilateral
safeguard agreements, Australian government only sell the same to Non-proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons parties. The discussion of these terms is necessary to mention here
as the company is required to develop a new bilateral agreement for the purpose of
exportation of copper concentrate as it contains uranium. This agreement will allow the
company to process the said copper concentrate in China.
In addition to the above agreements and treaties, one more agreement is there which
affect the working of the company. The company entered into an agreement with
Federal Attorney General of Brazil, for the purpose of restoration of communities and
environment influenced by Samarco dam failure. BHPB Brasil is a shareholder of
Samarco Mineracao. According to the result of this agreement, BHP Brazil is required to
develop and perform socio-economic and environmental program in order to provide
compensation of damages to those who affected by Samarco dam failure. This
agreement enhanced the company’s social responsibility level in Brazil (Bhp.com, 2016)
Further company has developed its own enterprise agreements, which outline
provisions for employees and determine their rights. This is an agreement that applies
to all the BHP personnel of Australia and is the company has to comply with the
provisions of the same in a mandatory manner. Not only this enterprise agreement, but
all the above-mentioned treaties and agreements affect the working of the company in a
mandatory manner and company in its operations has to comply with them. This is
necessary to state that not complying with them can cause fines and penalties to the
company.

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References
Bhp.com. (2019a). About us. [Online] Available at:
https://www.bhp.com/our-approach/our-company/about-us [Accessed on 02nd May
2019].
Bell, T. (2019) Company Profile: BHP Billiton. [Online] Available at: 9m
https://www.thebalance.com/company-profile-bhp-billiton-2340279 [Accessed on 02nd
May 2019].
Bhp.com. (2019b) Climate change. [Online] Available at:
https://www.bhp.com/environment/climate-change [Accessed on 02nd May 2019].
Privacy Act 1988
Environment Protection Act 1970
Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).
Austlii.edu.au. (2019) Corporations Act 2001 - Sect 180. [Online] Available at:
http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/num_act/ca2001172/s180.html [Accessed on
02nd May 2019].
Easteal, P. (2014) Justice Connections. UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic)
Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth)
Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)
(Bhp.com, 2016) Samarco - Agreement Reached with Brazilian Authorities. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bhp.com/media-and-insights/news-releases/2016/03/samarco-
agreement-reached-with-brazilian-authorities [Accessed on 02nd May 2019].
Un.org. (2019) Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [Online] Available at:
https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ [Accessed on 02nd May
2019].
Jia, X. and Tomasic, R. (2009) Corporate Governance and Resource Security in China:
The Transformation of China's Global Resources Companies. Oxon: Routledge.
Legislation.vic.gov.au. (2019) Environment Protection Act 1970. [Online] Available at:
http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/LTObject_Store/
LTObjSt2.nsf/
DDE300B846EED9C7CA257616000A3571/367C2C1E3FA0677FCA257761001FCB97/
$FILE/70-8056a172.pdf [Accessed on 02nd May 2019].