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CONVERGENCE IN SHAREHOLDER LAW
On the one hand, it can be argued that the increasing economic and politi-cal interdependence of countries has led to the convergence of national legalsystems. On the other hand, advocates of the counterhypothesis maintainthat this development is both unrealistic and unnecessary.
Mathias Siems examines the company law of the UK, the USA,Germany, France, Japan and China to see how this issue affects share-holder law. The author subsequently analyses economic and political fac-tors which may or may not lead to convergence, and assesses the extent ofthis development. Thus, Convergence in Shareholder Law not only providesa thorough comparative legal analysis but also shows how company lawinterconnects with political forces and economic development and helpsin evaluating whether harmonisation and shareholder protection shouldbe enhanced.
mathias m. siems is a Reader in Commercial Law at the University ofEdinburgh and a Research Associate at the Centre for Business Research,University of Cambridge.
international corporate law andfinancial market regulation
Recent years have seen an upsurge of change and reform in corporate law andfinancial market regulation internationally as the corporate and institutionalinvestor sector increasingly turns to the international financial markets. Thisfollows large-scale institutional and regulatory reform after a series ofinternational corporate governance and financial disclosure scandalsexemplified by the collapse of Enron in the US. There is now a great demand foranalysis in this area from the academic, practitioner, regulatory and policysectors.
The International Corporate Law and Financial Market Regulation series willrespond to that demand by creating a critical mass of titles which will addressthe need for information and high quality analysis in this fast developing area.
Series EditorsProfessor Eilis Ferran, University of CambridgeProessor Niamh Moloney, University of NottinghamProfessor Howell Jackson, Harvard Law School
Editorial BoardProfessor Marco Becht, Professor of Finance and Economics at Universite Librede Bruxelles and Executive Director of the European Corporate GovernanceInstitute (ECGI).
Professor Brian Cheffins, S.J. Berwin Professor of Corporate Law at the Facultyof Law, University of Cambridge.
Professor Paul Davies, Cassel Professor of Commercial Law at the LondonSchool of Economics and Political Science.
Professor Luca Enriques, Professor of Business Law in the Faculty of Law at theUniversity of Bologna.
Professor Guido Ferrarini, Professor of Law at the University of Genoa andHonorary Professor, Faculty of Law, University College London.
Professor Jennifer Hill, Professor of Corporate Law at Sydney Law School.
Professor Klaus J. Hopt, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Comparativeand International Private Law, Hamburg, Germany.
Professor Hideki Kanda, Professor of Law at the University of Tokyo.
Professor Colin Mayer, Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies at theSaıd Business School and Director of the Oxford Financial Research Centre.
James Palmer, Partner of Herbert Smith, London.
Professor Michel Tison, Professor at the Financial Law Institute of theUniversity of Ghent.
Andrew Whittaker, General Counsel to the Board at the UK Financial ServicesAuthority.
Professor Eddy Wymeersch, Chairman of the Committee of European SecuritiesRegulators (CESR), Co-Chair of the CESR-European Central Bank WorkingGroup on Clearing and Settlement, and part time Professor of Commercial Law,University of Ghent, Belgium.
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First published 2008
First paperback edition 2011
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In the last fifteen years, the words ‘globalization’, ‘internationalization’and ‘Europeanization’ have been seen and heard everywhere. The legaldiscussion has been no exception: on the one hand, it has sometimesbeen claimed that national legal systems are increasingly convergent. Onthe other hand, advocates of the counterhypothesis maintain that conver-gence of legal systems is neither realistic nor necessary. This book takes alook at how to approach this issue in relation to shareholder law. Althoughthere are already some publications which deal with company law con-vergence, the reader is often left disappointed. With respect to similaritiesand differences between countries, the previous literature is dominatedby broad statements about different corporate governance systems andanecdotal stories of convergence. A detailed legal analysis is, however,lacking. Similarly, with respect to convergence forces and hurdles, therehas often been only a perfunctory analysis of particular topics, such asregulatory competition or shareholder ownership. But, again, a coherentand comprehensive account is missing. Thus, this book aims at filling thatgap. Its structure is as follows. First, it compares the company laws of theUnited Kingdom, the USA, Germany, France, Japan and China. Secondly,it analyzes economic and political factors, which might (or might not)lead to convergence. Finally, it assesses this development.
I started writing the German version of this monograph in June2001 when I was just finishing my LLM in Edinburgh. Since then Ihave worked and lived in Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Florence, Cambridge(Massachusetts), Riga, Cambridge (England), and again Edinburgh. Ithank everyone who encouraged my research. Specifically for the Englishedition, I would like to thank Iain Fraser (Florence), Chris Goddard (Riga)and Kim Hughes (Cambridge University Press) for their help and sup-port, as well as Eilıs Ferran, Niamh Moloney and Howell Jackson as theeditors of the series on International Corporate Law and Financial MarketRegulation.
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GerCGK German Corporate Governance Code(Deutscher Corporate GovernanceKodex) (English version available atwww.corporate-governance-code.de/index-e.html)
GerFGG German Ex-Parte Jurisdiction Act (Gesetzuber die freiwillige Gerichtsbarkeit)
GerGmbHG German Law on Private LiabilityCompanies (Gesetz betreffend dieGesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung)
GerUmwG German Transformation Act(Umwandlungsgesetz)
GerWpHG German Securities Trading Act(Wertpapierhandelsgesetz)
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