Elements of Shareholder Democracy

2019 ◽  
pp. 334-464
Author(s):  
Carsten Gerner-Beuerle ◽  
Michael Schillig

This chapter begins with a discussion of the origins of corporate power. Shareholders are often considered the owners of the corporation. However, this is questionable in an economic and social, if not a legal, sense. In fact, the position of shareholders in many legal systems is confined to that of mere investor who acquires cash flow rights, but has minimal (and only indirect) influence on business operations through the election of directors. Where shareholders (or, for that matter, directors) have the power to decide, the law needs to ensure that they do not abuse their position of power to the detriment of corporate actors bound by the decision without being able to influence it. The chapter then covers the limits of corporate power, shareholder decision-making, and the appointment and removal of directors.

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hedayati-Kakhki ◽  
Michael Bohlander

AbstractThis paper tries to analyse some of the basic issues arising in the conversation between legal systems based on Shari'ah and those based on secular traditions, as well as the efforts of the law-makers in the former to adapt to changed expectations in modern society. The argument focuses on the area of criminal law and highlights concepts such as hudud crimes, apostasy and al-diyah. The authors advocate an increased dialogue and ultimately the creation of a Centre of Global Ijmā' as a forum in which Islamic and other legal scholars could meet to discuss their respective approaches to legal issues of global interest in order to avoid unnecessary ideological clashes and to provide a base for global policymakers to draw upon in their decision-making process.


Author(s):  
Doron Teichman

The hindsight bias is one of the first cognitive biases to be documented by psychologists, and to be studied by legal scholars employing a behavioral perspective. This chapter presents a review of the main findings documenting the prevalence of the hindsight bias in judicial decision-making. Based on this review, it then analyzes the different ways in which legal systems as well as contracting parties deal with the bias, and highlights potential paths for future empirical and theoretical studies.


2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-100
Author(s):  
Raffaele Caterina

“A system of private ownership must provide for something more sophisticated than absolute ownership of the property by one person. A property owner needs to be able to do more than own it during his lifetime and pass it on to someone else on his death.”1 Those who own things with a long life quite naturally feel the urge to deal in segments of time. Most of the owner's ambitions in respect of time can be met by the law of contract. But contract does not offer a complete solution, since contracts create only personal rights. Certain of the owner's legitimate wishes can be achieved only if the law allows them to be given effect in rem—that is, as proprietary rights. Legal systems have responded differently to the need for proprietary rights limited in time. Roman law created usufruct and other iura in re aliena; English law created different legal estates. Every system has faced similar problems. One issue has been the extent to which the holder of a limited interest should be restricted in his or her use and enjoyment in order to protect the holders of other interests in the same thing. A common core of principles regulates the relationship between those who hold temporary interests and the reversioners. For instance, every system forbids holder of the possessory interest to damage the thing arbitrarily. But other rules are more controversial. This study focuses upon the rules which do not forbid, but compel, certain courses of action.


Author(s):  
András Sajó ◽  
Renáta Uitz

This chapter examines the relationship between parliamentarism and the legislative branch. It explores the evolution of the legislative branch, leading to disillusionment with the rationalized law-making factory, a venture run by political parties beyond the reach of constitutional rules. The rise of democratically bred party rule is positioned between the forces favouring free debate versus effective decision-making in the legislature. The chapter analyses the institutional make-up and internal operations of the legislature, the role of the opposition in the legislative assembly, and explores the benefits of bicameralism for boosting the powers of the legislative branch. Finally, it looks at the law-making process and its outsourcing via delegating legislative powers to the executive.


2021 ◽  
pp. 138826272110049
Author(s):  
Victoria E. Hooton

The role of proportionality and individual assessments in EU residency and welfare access cases has changed significantly over the course of the last decade. This article demonstrates how a search for certainty and efficiency in this area of EU law has created greater uncertainty, more legal hurdles for citizens, and less consistency in decision-making at the national level. UK case law illustrates the difficulty faced by national authorities when interpreting and applying the rules relating to welfare access and proportionality. Ultimately, the law lacks the consistency and transparency that recent CJEU case law seeks to obtain, raising the question of whether the shift from the Court's previous, more flexible, case-by-case approach was desirable after all.


1972 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Watson

It is a commonplace that Rome's greatest contribution to the modern world is its law. Whether this is strictly true or not, Roman law is certainly the basis of the law of Western Europe (with the exception of England and Scandinavia), of much of Africa including South Africa, Ethiopia and in general the former colonies of countries in continental Europe, of Quebec and Louisiana, of Japan and Ceylon and so on. Perhaps even more important for the future is that International law is very largely modelled, by analogy, on Roman law. Just think of the perfectly serious arguments of a few years ago as to whether outer space (including the moon and planets) were res nullius or res communes and whether they were, or were not, susceptible of acquisition by occupatio. This persistence of Roman law has had undesirable consequences. First, Roman law as an academic subject has got into the hands of lawyers whose love of technicalities has frightened off classical scholars who tend not to use the legal sources. Secondly, scholars of antiquity, since Roman law is left well alone, have also been reluctant to look at other ancient legal systems. So have lawyers since these other systems have no ‘practical” value. Thirdly, following upon these but worse still, the usefulness of Roman law for later ages, coupled with its enforced isolation from other systems of antiquity, has often led to an exaggerated respect for it, and to its being regarded as well-nigh perfect, immutable, fit for all people. Many in “the Age of Reason” were ready to regard Roman law as “the Law of Reason”.


1987 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 238-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edith Greene ◽  
Edith Greene

This article describes a course that bridged the disciplines of clinical and experimental psychology and the law. The course included discussion of issues in criminal law, such as the psychology of policing, the reliability of confessions, victimization, plea bargaining, jury decision making, and alternative dispute resolution, and in civil law, such as civil commitment, predicting dangerousness, and child custody. Course objectives, requirements, and teaching aids are outlined, and some thoughts on integrating these diverse topics are included.


2021 ◽  
pp. 41-60
Author(s):  
Necmiye Merve Sahin ◽  
◽  
◽  
Merve Sena Uz

In this article, an algorithm has been introduced that enables judges to see the decisions that should be made in a way that is closest to the conscience and the law, without transferring the cases to the higher authorities, without anyone objecting to their decisions. This algorithm has been introduced depending on the generalized set-valued neutrosophic quadruple numbers and the Euclidean similarity measure in sets, what the decision is made by considering all the situations, regardless of which case the defendants come before the judge, how similar these decisions are to the legal decisions that should be made. In this way, we can easily see the decisions given to the accused in all kinds of cases, and we can arrange the decisions according to the similarity value. The closer the similarity value is to 1, the more correct the judge's decision from a legal point of view.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (01) ◽  
pp. 2150004
Author(s):  
Ching-Lung Chen ◽  
Hann-Pyng Wang ◽  
Hung-Shu Fan ◽  
Shiu-Chieh Chiu

This study examines whether negative corporate social responsibility events (NCSRs) signal potential firm misreporting and pending financial reporting restatements. Without formal opinions on the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting in Taiwan, we hypothesize NCSRs can represent and/or signal a firm’s internal control weakness, which may in turn result in poor financial reporting. Note that the concern with controlling owners expropriating wealth through ineffective internal controls is given important weight by investors and regulators. We further examine whether the signaling function of NCSRs is more pronounced in contexts with a serious agency problem, such as is found in the high divergence of control and cash flow rights case (denoted as high excess control rights) in Taiwan. Empirical results indicate that, as conjectured, incidence of NCSRs is positively associated with the likelihood of reporting restatements. Further evidence reveals that this result is particularly pronounced in the high divergence of control and cash-flow rights subsample test. We demonstrate several diagnostic tests and show the results are robust in various specifications.


2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 1001-1018
Author(s):  
Patrick Robardet ◽  
Daniel Mockle ◽  
John Clifford ◽  
Mario Bouchard

The authors comment on the capacity of the law to resolve problems concerning public participation in energy questions. Problems of clarity of language and consensus about objects arise in most public debates about energy. Although a particular public participation exercise may be intended to treat issues related to one policy level, questions invariably arise concerning other policy levels, be they strategic or operational. Ideally, the timing of public debate should be determined in function of the ends such debates are expected to serve, but this is difficult because of the diverse functions to be served by participation. As well, the exercise is less clear because of problems of access to and manipulation of information. Nevertheless, impartial decision-making is still perceived as leading to the best results, although the inherent limits of public participation are recognized. In the final analysis, the problems posed by public participation are not ones the law, which is contentious in orientation, can remedy.


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