scholarly journals Company Directors’ Duties and Conflicts of Interest

Author(s):  
Rosemary Teele Langford

This book contains the most detailed multi-jurisdictional analysis of directors’ conflicts available drawing together relevant case law, codes and statutory regulation from the law applying to directors of companies incorporated under the UK Companies Acts, with extensive reference to the law in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and New Zealand. The book provides comprehensive analysis of the conflicts faced by directors and includes the important areas of conflicts of interest, conflicts of duties, unauthorised profits, corporate opportunities, multiple directorships, nominee directorships, and conflicts involving stakeholders’ interests. Difficult aspects of these topics are analysed with reference to the laws of a range of common law jurisdictions. The extensive multi-jurisdictional analysis allows solutions to be presented in relation to difficult legal issues and enables clarification of the legal approach. In addition to detailed coverage and analysis of general law duties, the specific statutory duties are outlined and analysed including those concerning related party transactions. The UK Corporate Governance Code, and Guidance on Board Effectiveness, issued by the FRC in July 2018 are covered extensively. The book provides detail on fiduciary theory, the reach of the term ‘director’, consequences of a breach, remedies, authorisation and the role of disclosure. It also contains a detailed table of key cases concerning corporate opportunities which includes the pertinent facts, whether there was a breach of directors’ duties, and a summary of the important factors in the decision made. The cases are featured in order from instances representing clear breach to those in which no breach was found. The book is significant in its thorough coverage of general law and statutory duties relating to conflicts, and its clarification of the scope and application of currently complex and uncertain duties. It provides clear guidance to academics, practitioners, directors and regulators in each of the jurisdictions on the regulation of conflicts of interest and the implementation of good regulatory practice. This is a key reference work on this important and dynamic area of company law which provides careful analysis of the law set in a practical context.

2021 ◽  
pp. 125-194
Author(s):  
Eva Micheler

This chapter describes the role of the directors. The duties of the directors are owed to the company and while the shareholders are the primary indirect beneficiaries of those duties, the law integrates the interests of creditors and also of wider society. The law is primarily focused on ensuring compliance with the Companies Act and the constitution rather than with the enhancement of economic interests. The Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 serves as a mechanism through which the public interest is integrated into company law, while the UK Corporate Governance Code adds a further procedural dimension to the operation of the board of directors. The chapter then looks at how the idea of designing remuneration in a way that guides the directors to act either for the benefit of the shareholder or for the benefit of the company is flawed and has served as a motor justifying increasing rewards without bringing about commensurate increases in performance. It also analyses the duties of the directors to keep accounting records and to produce financial reports.


This is a new edition of the established authority on the law relating to directors of companies incorporated under the UK Companies Acts. The new edition features all important developments in the law including the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 which improves transparency (including requiring directors to be natural persons unless exceptions apply), simplifies company filing requirements, clarifies the application of general duties to shadow directors, modernises directors’ disqualification and reforms insolvency law to facilitate proceedings where there has been wrongdoing. There has been a wealth of new case law relevant to directors’ duties before the English courts, all of which are analysed and explained, including the Supreme Court decisions in Prest v Petrodel Resources, Jetivia v Bilta (UK), FHR European Ventures v Cedar Capital Partners and Eclairs Group v JKX Oil & Gas, the Court of Appeal decisions in Smithton Ltd v Naggar and Newcastle International Airport v Eversheds as well as the important High Court decisions in Universal Project Management Services v Fort Gilkicker, Madoff Securities International v Raven and the wrongful trading case, Re Ralls Builders. Non-UK cases are also analysed including Weavering Macro Fixed Income Fund Ltd v Peterson in the Cayman Islands’ Court of Appeal and the 2016 decision of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Chen v Jason. In keeping with developments in case law and legislation the book now includes expanded coverage of multiple derivatives claims, directors’ exposure to third party claims and a new chapter on civil remedies for market abuse. The third edition is a complete reference work on the law relating to company directors and is the first port of call for all serious corporate lawyers and scholars on this subject.


Author(s):  
Lee Roach

Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. Company Law Concentrate helps readers to consolidate knowledge in this area of law. This fifth edition includes coverage of the government’s corporate governance review, proposed updates to the UK Corporate Governance Code and the UK Stewardship Code, developments regarding unlisted companies and corporate governance, and notable case law developments, such as His Royal Highness Okpabi v Royal Dutch Shell plc [2018] and Re Sherlock Holmes International Society Ltd [2016]. Chapters examine business structures, incorporation, the constitution of the company, directors, members, corporate governance, capital and capital maintenance issues, members’ remedies, and corporate rescue and liquidation.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Nwafor

Purpose A company that is registered with share capital may issue different classes of shares and may confer rights on members, which place them in different classes in the company’s organisational structure. This paper is concerned with the propensity for encroachment on such vested class rights as companies strive to wriggle out of business challenges spawn by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the extent of protection that the law accords to the different classes of shareholders and members in a company especially when the company seeks to vary the vested class rights. Design/methodology/approach A doctrinal methodology, which relies on existing literature, case law and statutory instruments, is adopted to explore the nature of class rights and the adequacies of the remedial measures availed by statute to the aggrieved bearers of class rights in the context of the South African Companies Act 71 of 2008 with inferences drawn from the UK companies statute and case law. Findings The findings indicate that accessing the remedies available to aggrieved shareholders under the relevant statutory provisions are fraught with conditionality, which could make them elusive to those who may seek to rely on such provisions to vindicate any encroachment on their class rights. Practical implications The paper embodies cogent information on the interpretation and application of the relevant statutory provisions geared at the protection of shareholders class rights, which should serve as guides to companies and the courts in dealing with matters that affect the vested class rights of shareholders and members of a company. Originality/value The paper shows that protections offered to classes of shareholders under the law can also be extended to classes of members who are not necessarily shareholders, and that shareholders who seek to vindicate their class rights may conveniently rely on Section 163 that provides for unfair prejudice remedy to avoid the onerous conditions under Section 164 of the South African Companies Act 71 of 2008, which directly deals with class rights.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 122-129
Author(s):  
Patrick F. Todd

After Brexit, the United Kingdom is unlikely to continue pursuing integration with other Member States of the European Union, including through competition policy. As a result, the time is ripe to reconsider the role of the single market imperative in competition law, in particular in relation to vertical restraints where the goal of market integration plays a pivotal role. This article shows that recent European vertical restraints decisions and case law, in particular concerning territorial and online restraints, have been motivated in whole or in part by the single market imperative (SMI). It then examines how the law in the UK might follow a different path post-Brexit, taking the Ping case as an example. However, a similar change is not likely to be forthcoming in relation to the law governing pricing restraints, which are not obviously linked to the SMI and which have been the subject of much enforcement in the UK both before and during the UK's membership of the EU.


2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwenaele Rashbrooke

AbstractThis article examines the role of the ITLOS established by the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention. It considers the extent to which principles of international environmental law are reflected in the 1982 Convention. It then reviews the relevant jurisprudence of the tribunal including the Southern Blue-fin Tuna case between Japan and Australia and New Zealand, the MOX case between Ireland and the UK, and the Land Reclamation case between Malaysia and Singapore to determine the extent that the ITLOS case-law has indeed contributed to the development of certain key principles of international environmental law, including Stockholm Principle 21/Rio Principle 2, the principle of preventative action, cooperation and precaution.


Author(s):  
Lee Roach

Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. Company Law Concentrate helps readers to consolidate knowledge in this area of law. This sixth edition has been fully updated and includes coverage of the 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code, the Wates Corporate Governance Principles, the UK Stewardship Code 2020, the Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018, and the reforms proposed following the consultation on insolvency and corporate governance. Case law updates include BAT Industries plc v Sequana SA [2019], Burnden Holdings (UK) Ltd v Fielding [2019], Popely v Popely [2019], and Vedanta Resources plc v Lungowe [2019]. Chapters examine business structures, incorporation, the constitution of the company, directors, members, corporate governance, capital and capital maintenance issues, members’ remedies, and corporate rescue and liquidation.


Author(s):  
Carsten Gerner-Beuerle ◽  
Michael Anderson Schillig

This book provides an exposition of company law from a comparative perspective. It analyses important policy issues in the area of company law, including the emergence and nature of the business corporation, EU company law, incorporation and corporate representation, agency problems in the firm, rights of stakeholders and shareholders, minority shareholder protection in corporate control transactions, legal capital, and piercing the corporate veil, as well as corporate insolvency and restructuring law. The book’s main focus is the law of public and private companies in the common law sense (the law of partnerships is referred to and taken into account as necessary). The book’s analysis encompasses the corporate laws of the US, the UK, Germany, and France, as well as the legislative measures adopted by the EU and the relevant case law of the Court of Justice of the EU. It includes edited and, where necessary, translated extracts from leading company case law. The cases are discussed and interpreted in the context of the national and European regulatory frameworks and in light of economic and legal theory, as well as legal history.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-91
Author(s):  
Badar Mohammed Almeajel Alanazi

The purpose of the law on incorporation has been heavily contested by academics. On one side of the debate are scholars who argue that company law should have an “enabling” role, in that it should empower business owners to arrange their affairs in a manner that best suits their purposes at the same time as minimising any interference from the state. On the other side of the debate are those who argue that company law should impose on the world of commerce strong regulatory measures to prevent such abuses. This conflict between the “enabling” and the “regulatory” role of company incorporation law is visible in many jurisdictions, with each of them achieving a different balance between the two approaches. Many scholarly studies have elaborated on how companies are incorporated and regulated. Some of them have been used in the current paper such as studies carried out by Bayern et al. (2017) and Reyes (2018). However, this paper examines the extent to which the incorporation regimes in the UK, the US, and Australia can be said to be “enabling” or “regulatory” in nature, through a detailed analysis of the law on company incorporation, ownership structure and the protection provided to the relevant stakeholders through the principles of separate legal personality.


1998 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 554-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross Grantham

THE concept of ownership is a complex, powerful and controversial idea. In law it explains, justifies and gives moral force to a host of rights and duties as well as serving to legitimate the allocation of wealth and privilege. The influence of this idea is, furthermore, everywhere embodied in the law. In company law, legal and economic conceptions have both rested on and have been shaped by the normative implications of ownership. Historically, ownership was the principal explanation and justification for the central role of shareholders in corporate affairs. As owners, shareholders were entitled to control the management of the company and to the exclusive benefit of the company's activities. Ownership also served to legitimate the corporate form itself. So long as it was owned by individuals the economic and political power of the company was both benign and a bulwark against the intrusion of the state.


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