1. Introduction to company law

Company Law ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 3-13
Author(s):  
Alan Dignam ◽  
John Lowry
Keyword(s):  
Company Law ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Organisational Structure ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Public Companies ◽  
Business Organisation ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Subject ◽  
A Company

Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter presents an overview of company law, first by considering the company’s place within the various forms of business organisation. To get some comparative perspective on the relative merits of each type of organisation, three criteria for judging them are discussed: whether the form of business organisation facilitates investment in the business, mitigates or minimises the risk involved in the business venture, and whether it provides a clear organisational structure. Using these criteria, three forms of business organisation are analysed: the sole trader, a partnership, or a registered company. The chapter also explains the importance of the memorandum as part of the company’s constitution, as well as the distinction between private companies and public companies. Finally, it outlines the benefits of forming a company as opposed to the sole trader or a partnership.

1. Introduction to company law

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Dignam ◽  
John Lowry
Keyword(s):  
Company Law ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Organisational Structure ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Public Companies ◽  
Business Organisation ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Subject ◽  
A Company

Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter presents an overview of company law, first by considering the company’s place within the various forms of business organisation. To get some comparative perspective on the relative merits of each type of organisation, three criteria for judging them are discussed: whether the form of business organisation facilitates investment in the business, mitigates or minimises the risk involved in the business venture, and whether it provides a clear organisational structure. Using these criteria, three forms of business organisation are analysed: the sole trader, a partnership, or a registered company. The chapter also explains the importance of the memorandum as part of the company’s constitution, as well as the distinction between private companies and public companies. Finally, it outlines the benefits of forming a company as opposed to the sole trader or a partnership.

1. Introduction to company law

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Dignam ◽  
John Lowry
Keyword(s):  
Company Law ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Organisational Structure ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Public Companies ◽  
Business Organisation ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Subject ◽  
A Company

Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter presents an overview of company law, first by considering the company’s place within the various forms of business organisation. To get some comparative perspective on the relative merits of each type of organisation, three criteria for judging them are discussed: whether the form of business organisation facilitates investment in the business, mitigates or minimises the risk involved in the business venture, and whether it provides a clear organisational structure. Using these criteria, three forms of business organisation are analysed: the sole trader, a partnership, or a registered company. The chapter also explains the importance of the memorandum as part of the company’s constitution, as well as the distinction between private companies and public companies. Finally, it outlines the benefits of forming a company as opposed to the sole trader or a partnership.

7. Share capital

Company Law ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 115-143
Author(s):  
Alan Dignam ◽  
John Lowry
Keyword(s):  
Company Law ◽  
Financial Assistance ◽  
Public Companies ◽  
Share Capital ◽  
The Core ◽  
Public Company ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Subject ◽  
A Company

Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter examines how company law governs maintenance of a company’s share capital, with emphasis on the distinction between private and public companies. It also discusses various ways in which shareholders might legally receive funds (‘distributions’) from the company, including issuance of shares and payment of shares in kind (that is, goods, property, or services rather than in cash). The relevance of the nominal value of shares issued to shareholders, the issue of paying dividends to shareholders, and disguised return of capital to shareholders are considered as well. The chapter also examines two other means of returning funds to shareholders, reduction of share capital and redemption or purchase by a company of its own shares, before concluding with an assessment of the prohibition and the exceptions concerning the issue of financial assistance for the acquisition of shares in a public company.

7. Share capital

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Dignam ◽  
John Lowry
Keyword(s):  
Company Law ◽  
Financial Assistance ◽  
Public Companies ◽  
Share Capital ◽  
The Core ◽  
Public Company ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Subject ◽  
A Company

Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter examines how company law governs maintenance of a company’s share capital, with emphasis on the distinction between private and public companies. It also discusses various ways in which shareholders might legally receive funds (‘distributions’) from the company, including issuance of shares and payment of shares in kind (that is, goods, property, or services rather than in cash). The relevance of the nominal value of shares issued to shareholders, the issue of paying dividends to shareholders, and disguised return of capital to shareholders are considered as well. The chapter also examines two other means of returning funds to shareholders, reduction of share capital and redemption or purchase by a company of its own shares, before concluding with an assessment of the prohibition and the exceptions concerning the issue of financial assistance for the acquisition of shares in a public company.

7. Share capital

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Dignam ◽  
John Lowry
Keyword(s):  
Company Law ◽  
Financial Assistance ◽  
Public Companies ◽  
Share Capital ◽  
The Core ◽  
Public Company ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Subject ◽  
A Company

Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter examines how company law governs maintenance of a company’s share capital, with emphasis on the distinction between private and public companies. It also discusses various ways in which shareholders might legally receive funds (‘distributions’) from the company, including issuance of shares and payment of shares in kind (that is, goods, property, or services rather than in cash). The relevance of the nominal value of shares issued to shareholders, the issue of paying dividends to shareholders, and disguised return of capital to shareholders are considered as well. The chapter also examines two other means of returning funds to shareholders, reduction of share capital and redemption or purchase by a company of its own shares, before concluding with an assessment of the prohibition and the exceptions concerning the issue of financial assistance for the acquisition of shares in a public company.

Company Law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Dignam ◽  
John Lowry
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Company Law ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Corporate Governance Code ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Complex Subject

Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. Company Law provides an account of the key principles of this area of law. It aims to demystify this complex subject. Chapter introductions provide summaries of various aspects of company law and further reading provide the tools for further research and study. This volume includes coverage of new case law such as Rossendale BC v Hurstwood Properties (A) Ltd [2019] EWCA Civ 364; BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA [2019] EWCA Civ 112; Global Corporate Ltd v Hale [2018] EWCA Civ 2618; Parr v Keystone Healthcare Ltd [2019] EWCA Civ 1246; Sevilleja Garcia v Marex Financial Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 1468; and Re Sprintroom Ltd; Prescott v Potamianos [2019] EWCA Civ 932. On corporate governance the latest developments surrounding the UK Corporate Governance Code and Stewardship Developments 2020 together with Wates Corporate Governance Principles for Large Private Companies are discussed.

14. Shareholders

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek French
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Company Law ◽  
Annual General ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Holding Company ◽  
Wholly Owned Subsidiary ◽  
Mandatory Rules ◽  
Class Rights ◽  
A Company ◽  
The Way

This chapter focuses on the members or shareholders of a company and the way in which they take decisions on the company’s affairs by written resolution using a statutory procedure. It begins by considering the rules which determine who is a member of a company and the information on the members which a company must record. It then describes the mandatory rules of company law that allow members to participate in decision-making with regards to a company’s affairs; members’ class rights and the alteration of such rights; and the definitions of holding company, subsidiary and wholly owned subsidiary. Relevant provisions of the Companies Act 2006 governing written resolutions of private companies, meetings and annual general meetings, voting, adjournment of meetings and authorisation of political donations by companies are also discussed. The chapter analyses a number of particularly significant cases.

1. Introduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek French ◽  
Stephen W. Mayson ◽  
Christopher L. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Case Law ◽  
Company Law ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
Sole Proprietorship ◽  
Legal Forms ◽  
Transparency And Disclosure ◽  
And Control ◽  
A Company

Overview of the work’s contents: overview of English company law, the context in which it has developed, its purpose and history, controversy over company law and its fundamental nature. Introduces the idea of a company as a separate, artificial person capable of owning property, being a party to contracts, and being a claimant or defendant in legal proceedings. Discusses other main themes that recur in the book, including ownership and control of a company and corporate governance, corporate finance, transparency and disclosure, the distinction between public and private companies, and picking up the pieces after things go wrong. Deals with the nature of corporations in general and companies in particular; differences between incorporated companies and two other legal forms used by businesses, partnership, and sole proprietorship; the sources of company law in statute, case law, and European law; and the purposes company law should serve.

9. Classes of shares and variation of class rights

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Dignam ◽  
John Lowry
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
General Nature ◽  
Share Capital ◽  
The Core ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Class Rights ◽  
A Company ◽  
A Share

Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter focuses on the rights and liabilities of a shareholder which are the incident of the general nature of a share, as well as his particular rights and liabilities by virtue of owning a particular type or class of share. It first considers the legal nature of a shareholding and the different types of share capital and typical class rights of a shareholder, as well as the statutory procedure required of a company before it can effect a variation of shareholders’ class rights. Examples of classes of shares are then given, and preferential rights attached to preference shares are discussed. The chapter concludes by looking at European Union initiatives on shareholders’ rights.

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