Critical Company Law

The second edition of Critical Company Law provides a framework in which to understand how the company functions in society and a thorough grounding in modern legal doctrine. It shows how modern company law is shaped by a multi-layered history of politics, ideology, economics and power. Through the lens of political economic theory the book shows how the company becomes the mechanism through which the state makes political choices about distributing societies’ wealth and through which it responds to economic crises. The current law reflects an economy marked by a disjuncture between the low profits of the productive economy and the high profits of the finance economy. Critical Company Law examines areas of company law to show how they reflect a fragile economy inexorably drawn to social and economic inequality and short-termism. These include: • The Doctrine of Separate Corporate Personality • Groups of Companies and Tort Liabilities • Company Formation and the Constitution • Directors’ Duties and Authority • Corporate Capacity • Shares and Shareholders • Raising and Maintaining Capital • Minority Protection In this uniquely hybrid book the legal topics are treated with detail and clarity, providing an engaging introduction to the key topics required for a student of company law.

Understanding the corporation means understanding its legal framework, but until recently the origins and evolution of corporate law have received relatively little attention. The topical chapters featured in this Research Handbook, contributed by leading scholars from around the world, examine the historical development of corporation and business organization law in the Americas, Europe, and Asia from the ancient world to modern times, providing an invaluable resource for both further historical research and scholars seeking the origins of present-day issues.

With the completion of the DTI-sponsored Company Law Review, the reform of company law has now become a very important subject of study. This new book is a must for all those interested in the development and reform of UK company law. The book collates the work of leading authorities on company law, including members of the judiciary and the Law Commission, and individuals from the worlds of professional practice and academia. All main areas of company law are covered, including directors' duties; corporate governance; minority protection; ultra vires; company charges; and human rights and the company, as well as a comprehensive analysis of the work of the Company Law Reform Steering Group. The central purpose of this book is to analyze the current state of play and to note, in particular, the work of the Company Law Review Group. Critical analysis and suggestions on how company law should be reformed are also offered.

Contemporary legal thought has been powerfully influenced by Critical Legal Studies, a school of legal scholars whose work has sustained a continuing radical critique of established legal doctrines. In this essential reference work, Richard Bauman presents the most thorough, up-to-date guide available for this essential literature. In addition to providing the basic bibliographic information, Bauman offers a set of effective introductions to contextualize and explain the work being surveyed. He has created a fundamental handbook not only for the law but also for politics and radical thought.

A thoroughly updated new edition of this successful and influential text, it helps students gain a critical understanding of the key debates shaping the field of company law. The new edition has been updated to include many substantial developments in company law, specifically the area of board diversity, corporate social responsibility, shareholder control, director remuneration and human rights.

"The second edition of this popular book on company law combines theoretical and jurisprudential issues with an up-to-date account of legal developments across the field of company law. The author demonstrates that the needs of shareholders in companies which have dispersed ownership of shares cannot be properly understood without an analysis of the law relating to securities regulation and capital markets." "Company Law is essential reading for LL.B. courses in universities and also covers the requirements of the University of London (External) LL.B. The book offers excellent foundation reading for postgraduate LL.M.s in company and capital markets law and is an excellent critical survey of a dynamic field of law for students qualifying professionally in the fields of accounting, finance and company secretaryship."--BOOK JACKET.

UNDERSTANDING COMPANY LAW 3RD EDITION is a textbook for non-law students at polytechnics and universities studying the law of companies and business organisations. Providing an excellent balance between theory, case law and practice, UNDERSTANDING COMPANY LAW covers the essential concepts of company law, business organisations, financial markets and takeovers in a clear and straightforward manner.

New Critical Legal Thinking articulates the emergence of a stream of critical legal theory which is directly concerned with the relation between law and the political. The early critical legal studies claim that all law is politics is displaced with a different and more nuanced theoretical arsenal. Combining grand theory with a concern for grounded political interventions, the various contributors to this book draw on political theorists and continental philosophers in order to engage with current legal problematics, such as the recent global economic crisis, the Arab spring and the emergence of biopolitics. The contributions instantiate the claim that a new and radical political legal scholarship has come into being: one which critically interrogates and intervenes in the contemporary relationship between law and power.