Shareholder Voting Rights And Practices In Europe And The United States

With the increasing interest of foreign investors, particularly institutional investors, in European companies, there is a growing need for information on the different regimes affecting the legal status of shareholders. Investors need to be aware of the rights and privileges of shareholders in various jurisdictions in order to participate effectively in companies' voting and decision-making processes. This book provides detailed analysis of the rules and practices in sixteen European jurisdictions and the United States, covering issues such as convening the general meeting, depositing and blocking of shares, participation rights, setting of the agenda, voting rights and proxy rules. The authors also aim to make companies aware of practices which may hamper effective shareholder participation and, in comparing the different rules and practices, to identify areas where further harmonisation might be undertaken within the European Community framework. The papers collected here are the result of a conference organised by Professor Theodor Baums, of the University of Osnabrück and Professor Eddy Wymeersch, of the University of Ghent.

Anne Lafarre combines wide ranging empirical legal and economic research to analyse and understand the real role of the AGM in the European businesses and corporate governance frameworks today.

Presents in-depth, comparative analyses of German, UK and US company laws illustrated by leading cases, with German cases in English translation.

This is a book that will be warmly welcomed by everyone engaged in the important debate under way on corporate responsibility and governance.

All over the world, companies play an important role in the economy. Different types of stakeholders hold the reins in these companies. An important class are the shareholders that finance the activities of these companies. In return, stakeholders have a say on how these companies should be organized and structure their activities. This is primarily done through voting and engaging. These mechanisms of voting and engaging allow the shareholders to decide significant aspects of the company structure, from who governs it to how much directors are paid. However, how shareholders vote and engage and how far their rights stretch are organized differently in different countries. This pioneering book provides insights into what rights these shareholders have and how the shareholders of companies in nineteen different jurisdictions participate in corporate life through voting and engaging. Comparative and international in scope, it pays particular attention to how jurisdictions align and differ around the world.

This collection of essays has been compiled in honour of Professor Eddy Wymeersch on the occasion of his retirement as professor at Ghent University. His main international academic peers explore developments on the crossroads of company law and financial regulation in Europe and the United States, providing a unique view on the dynamics of regulatory competition in an era of economic globalisation, whether in the fields of rulemaking, organising the mobility of capital or the enforcement of rules. The deepening of European financial integration and the transatlantic regulatory dialogue has generated new paradigms of rule-setting in a multinational framework and reinforced the need to develop adequate instruments for co-operation between regulators. Regulators increasingly use concepts such as equivalence or mutual recognition to regulate cross-border relations.

In China, the thirty-year economic reform reflects the process of moving from planned economy towards market economy. This could be seen From the changes in the 2005 Company Law, which recognizes the owners' property rights and gives more freedoms to them to decide various matters. In this new edition, besides offering a systemic the constitution of companies, the establishment of various companies, role and function of various parties in corporate governance, and corporate financing, Gu Minkang highlights the major changes in the 2005 Company Law, and addresses many new issues such as shareholders' derivative action, American limited liability company, and asset restructuring of listed companies. Another important feature is a comparison between the 1993 Company Law and the 2005 Company Law that will facilitate reading and understanding. This comprehensive and up-to-date presentation of Chinese company law will be of value to all who are involved in business with and in China and their legal advisors, and to students of Chinese company law.

New investment techniques and new types of shareholder activists are shaking up the traditional ways of equity investment that inform current corporate law and governance. This book evaluates different risk-decoupling strategies and makes the case for regulatory intervention, developing a comprehensive proposal to address the regulatory problem.