Rainforest Capitalism

Congolese logging camps are places where mud, rain, fuel smugglers, and village roadblocks slow down multinational timber firms; where workers wage wars against trees while evading company surveillance deep in the forest; where labor compounds trigger disturbing colonial memories; and where blunt racism, logger machismo, and homoerotic desires reproduce violence. In Rainforest Capitalism Thomas Hendriks examines the rowdy world of industrial timber production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to theorize racialized and gendered power dynamics in capitalist extraction. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among Congolese workers and European company managers as well as traders, farmers, smugglers, and barkeepers, Hendriks shows how logging is deeply tied to feelings of existential vulnerability in the face of larger forces, structures, and histories. These feelings, Hendriks contends, reveal a precarious side of power in an environment where companies, workers, and local residents frequently find themselves out of control. An ethnography of complicity, ecstasis, and paranoia, Rainforest Capitalism queers assumptions of corporate strength and opens up new ways to understand the complexities and contradictions of capitalist extraction.

Mughal port officials and European company-men: The dynamics of a commercial relationship in the seventeenth century

The description of the Mughals as a land-driven power that remained largely inert to maritime opportunities and challenges does not sufficiently explain their increasing reliance on the seaborne delivery of strategic goods such as horses, bullion and specialised military labour. In this context, the article focuses on the office of mutasaddi, which operationalised Mughal authority at the port of Surat. By analysing the interactions of mutasaddis with European trading companies, it is shown that the Mughal presence was central to the shaping of the maritime trajectory of the region. As long as the Mughal oversight was vigilant, the port officials dominated the Europeans. But once the Mughal presence came to be hollowed out, new forces set in that ultimately enabled the Europeans to turn the tables on the port officials.

2. The framework of company law

This chapter outlines the statutory framework of company law and the reforms put forward by the Company Law Review which were implemented by the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006). Registered companies in the UK are governed by the CA 2006 and its predecessors. The remainder of the chapter covers the European framework of company law considering the harmonisation programme, simplification measures, and the modernisation Directives. The chapter outlines the impact of EU initiatives in areas such as corporate reporting, corporate governance, restructuring, and mobility. Freedom of establishment for companies is discussed with the relevant ECJ case law. A brief discussion of the European Company is included.

Wirecard and European Company and Financial Law

Wirecard constitutes not only a major scandal in Germany but also touches some fundamental concepts of European corporate and capital market law and will therefore dominate the discussion for further reforms for several years. This discussion will touch general questions of corporate governance, the examination of financial reports, the role of auditors, the (current) market abuse regime and yet again short sellings. Some reforms are in a way self-evident and will probably be undertaken within this or next year. This is especially the case for a (further) reform of the regulation of auditors and for a reform of the regulation of the examination of financial reports. For both areas – usually stricter – concepts already exist and will this time have a better chance to be enacted. Therefore, Wirecard might turn to be a bad case that hopefully does not make bad law. However, there also are other aspects such as the relation of the market abuse regime and financial reporting that might require a deeper and longer analysis before concrete legislative measures can be put into place. The same applies for a further reform of the corporate governance of listed corporations, the regulation of short sellings and especially for the creation of a European framework for invalid (or false) financial reports. For these aspects Wirecard might constitute some kind of promoter for a further harmonization. This paper gives a short summary of the already publicly known facts of the Wirecard scandal, analyses how European Company and Financial Law was involved and identifies the challenges for a reform of European Company and Financial Law.

European Legal Forms – Underlying Systematic and Principles

Over the last decades, European company law experienced a continuous growth in significance. Along with the European company law directives, European legal forms constitute the two pillars of European company law. In the course last 35 years, three European legal forms – namely the European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG), the Societas Europaea (SE) and the Societas Cooperativa Europaea (SCE) – were introduced. In contrast, the introduction of four other legal form projects on the European plane (inter alia the Societas Privata Europaea (SPE)) failed. This paper will attempt to identify whether there are underlying principles and systematics to the functioning of these established and envisaged European legal forms. This approach shall contribute to the development of an overall concept for European legal forms. In this regard, the article examines the historical development of European legal forms and their significance for the practice of European company law. On this account, also these legal forms’ functions – in particular their effect on the competition between EU and national level – will be discussed. To complement these considerations, the paper studies the regulatory technique and the associated multi-level problem.

Transforming Georgia’s regulations on Shareholders’ right to interim dividend Confronting the European Company Law

The article provides a critical legal analysis of Georgia’s regulations on the interim dividend payment and highlights the necessity of proper amendments to comply with European company law. Since having an EU-Georgia Association Agreement signed, the dynamic process of Europeanization has put various legislative changes on the agenda, which also regard shareholders’ proprietary rights. This article briefly gives a novel insight into the distribution of interim dividends from a comparative point of view. It suggests the possibly scrutinized coverage of the legal preconditions along with liability consequences for the interim dividend declaration from the perspective of both shareholders and joint stock companies in Georgia. The article emphasizes the structure of the corporation, which naturally bedrocks the potential conflict of interests between the shareholders and creditors. The topic also endorses questioning Georgia’s rules on capital maintenance in relation to the interim dividend distribution. Hence, the study reveals prevailing regulatory lapses and makes pertinent recommendations on the alignment of the financial interests of those mentioned. Last but not least, the article exposes how directors on the credible basis of their fiduciary duties are assigned to divert assets of the corporation since their rationality in decision-making is expected to meet the best interests of the company.