Despite a flurry of activity by Canadian companies to draft new guidelines for their boards, a new study finds rules governing key ethical and legal issues are still widely missing.

Among the overlooked are rules regarding directors’ conflict of interest, legal obligations, third party dealings and disclosure.

“Even with waves of media attention around board behaviour and governance, there continue to be gaping holes in corporate charters and rules,” says study author Chris Bart, professor of marketing, business policy and international business at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University and lead professor at The Directors College, Canada’s only university-accredited director education program.

The study is being published in the International Journal for Business Governance and Ethics. It finds less than one-third of Canadian companies surveyed had identifiable rules regarding legal obligations of boards (29%), third party dealings of directors (28 percent), disclosure requirements for board members (21%), and corporate social responsibility (3%).

Rules governing the role, responsibilities and duties of directors were the most commonly found. Over 93% of firms studied had explicit guidelines in this area.