A decade after the Global Financial Crisis and Great Recession, developed economies continue to struggle under excessive household debt. While exacerbating inequality and political unrest, this debt - when combined with wage stagnation and a shrinking welfare state - has played a key role in maintaining economic growth and allowing households faced with rising costs of living to make ends meet. In Bankruptcy: The Case for Relief in an Economy of Debt, Joseph Spooner examines this economic model and finds it increasingly unsustainable. In a call to action to reduce debt burden, he turns to bankruptcy law, which is uniquely situated as a mechanism of social insurance against the risks of a debt-dependent economy. This book should be read by anyone interested in understanding the problem of consumer debt and how best to address it.

The food industry is a notoriously complex economic sector that has not received the attention it deserves within legal scholarship. Production and distribution of food is complex because of its polycentric character (as it operates at the intersection of different public policies) and its dynamic evolution and transformation in the last few decades (from technological and governance perspectives). This volume introduces the global value chain approach as a useful way to analyse competition law and applies it to the operations of food chains and the challenges of their regulation. Together, the chapters not only provide a comprehensive mapping of a vast comparative field, but also shed light on the intricacies of the various policies and legal fields in operation. The book offers a conceptual and theoretical framework for competition authorities, companies and academics, and fills a massive gap in the competition policy literature dealing with global value chains and food.

Progressive Commercialization of Airline Governance Culture analyzes the transition of the airline sector from the not-for-profit nation-bound public utility model towards a profit-oriented globalized industry. It illustrates how legal, political, historical and cultural factors have shaped the corporate governance in the airline sector, and describes how these factors influence economic decisions and performance. The unique feature of the book is that the subject is consequentially discussed from the perspective of airline governance culture. This approach links the examination of legal and policy factors which influence airline activities together with a discussion of economic issues, all within one clear, coherent and comprehensive framework.

Business law is studied on a wide variety of courses, where students who have no previous experience of studying law have to deal with subjects as varied as the English legal system, company law and employment law. This updated edition contains additional chapters on sale of goods law, including the changes introduced by the Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994. In addition, the chapters on torts have been completely rewritten, with an emphasis on negligent misstatement to make them more appropriate to students studying business, accountancy and management. Since it is important that students should be able to measure their progress, each section contains questions and answers for self-testing. In addition, there are a number of examination-style questions, with suggested answers, so that the student should be prepared for the final examination. Helen J. Bond is the co-author of "SWOT Company Law". Peter Kay is the author of "Employment Law Handbook".

Delaware is the state of incorporation for almost two-thirds of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as more than half of all companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and other major stock exchanges. This gives Delaware a seemingly unchallengeable position as the dominant producer of US corporate law. In recent years, however, some observers have suggested that Delaware's competitive position is eroding. Other states have long tried to chip away at Delaware's position, and recent Delaware legal developments may have strengthened the case for incorporating outside Delaware. More importantly, however, the federal government is increasingly preempting corporate governance law. The contributors to this volume are leading academics and practitioners with decades of experience in Delaware corporate law. They bring together a variety of perspectives that collectively provide the reader with a broad understanding of how Delaware achieved its dominant position and the threats it faces.

What kind of decision-making should multinationals engage in to create a sustainable company? There is substantial debate over why CEOs, senior management and Boards of Directors make the wrong decisions by not asking the right questions, with the result that not only is the company itself damaged, but all of the stakeholders find themselves at a detriment. Focusing on innovation, technology transfer and the use of intangible assets, Energy Law and the Sustainable Company features case studies from the oil and gas sector, to illustrate how to develop a sustainable business. Considering corporate social responsibility from the perspective of international and national law, the book demonstrates how companies can be both profitable and ethical using the influences of psychology to encourage senior decision makers to make the right decisions. It was revealed that reputation was the main principle influencing decision-making. The book also discusses how companies have reported on their sustainability strategy and considers how technology transfer and intangible assets may play a part in addressing global sustainability. This book should be invaluable reading to students and scholars of Sustainable Business, Business Law, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental and Energy Law as well as Environmental and Energy Management.

Die Untersuchung widmet sich dem Problem einer Majorisierung innerhalb eines Stimmbindungspools. Die Autorin setzt sich mit der Frage auseinander, welche Auswirkungen eine poolinterne Mehrheitsbildung auf die gesetzlichen Vorschriften des Gesellschafts-, Konzern- und Kapitalmarktrechts hat. Den Schwerpunkt der Untersuchung bildet die Auslegung der Zurechnungstatbestande des Acting in Concert sowie des beherrschenden Einflusses im konzernrechtlichen Sinne. Die Autorin gelangt zu dem Ergebnis, dass eine wechselseitige Stimmrechtszurechnung im Fall einer Majorisierung zu korrekturbedurftigen Ergebnissen fuhrt, die eine teleologische Reduktion der Zurechnungsvorschriften mit der Folge einer einseitigen Stimmrechtszurechnung erforderlich machen.

This book examines the phenomenon of reservation of title clauses in commercial contracts and looks at the impact of these clauses upon the transactions of which they form a part. With the aid of data gathered from a field survey it also examines the impact of these clauses in situations of insolvency and the strategies employed by insolvency practitioners to counteract their effect. This subject is of increasing interest and importance for legal teaching and research and the book meets the demand for an integrated, readable study of insolvency practice.

The uniqueness of this book is its conceptualization of a corporate group as a system of interaction, comprised of nodes, links and internal governance tools. This framework can be used to understand what constitutes a group, based on affiliation-linkages. By increasing our perception of group-structuring we can assess the extent to which existing laws address all variables. If the law does not consider certain variables to be used for identifying groups, a case of shadow business may be identified. Group-transparency is a recurring topic on the regulatory agenda. In this book, three legal domains are analysed questioning whether specific amendments have led to increased group-transparency: the control-definition for consolidated accounts, shareholder-transparency in company law, and major holding disclosure in listed companies. This book identifies deficiencies of the law in obtaining its regulatory objective of group-transparency, and proposes an interpretative solution based on Systems Thinking.

There have been an increasing need for greater integration of many Asian economies, either within the confines of ASEAN or on a more geo-economically strategic scale including major Asian jurisdictions like China, Japan, and Korea. A number of key personalities within the regional legal fraternity have advanced views that such integration ought to occur through the harmonization of legal rules, arguing that in doing so, uncertainty and other transaction costs would be reduced and commercial confidence within the region concomitantly increased. This edited volume brings together eminent and promising scholars and practitioners to investigate what convergence and divergence means in their respective fields and for Asia. Interwoven in the details of each tale of convergence is whether and how convergence ought to take place, and in so choosing, what are the attendant consequences for that choice.

How can businesses operate profitably and sustainably while ensuring that they are applying human rights? It is possible to apply human rights while at the same time decreasing cost and making human rights contribute to profits. Yet business efforts alone are insufficient, and states must possess sufficient regulatory power to work together with businesses and investors - not only to improve human rights but also to foster development more broadly. This textbook, the first of its kind, explores all aspects of the links between business operations and human rights. Its twenty-five chapters guide readers systematically through all the particular features of this intersection, integrating legal and business approaches. Thematic sections cover conceptual and regulatory frameworks, remedies and dispute resolution, and practical enforcement tools. Ideal for courses in business, law, policy and international development, the book is also essential reading for managers in large corporations.

How can businesses operate profitably and sustainably while ensuring that they are applying human rights? It is possible to apply human rights while at the same time decreasing cost and making human rights contribute to profits. Yet business efforts alone are insufficient, and states must possess sufficient regulatory power to work together with businesses and investors - not only to improve human rights but also to foster development more broadly. This textbook, the first of its kind, explores all aspects of the links between business operations and human rights. Its twenty-five chapters guide readers systematically through all the particular features of this intersection, integrating legal and business approaches. Thematic sections cover conceptual and regulatory frameworks, remedies and dispute resolution, and practical enforcement tools. Ideal for courses in business, law, policy and international development, the book is also essential reading for managers in large corporations.

In der wirtschaftlichen Krise der Gesellschaft bewegen sich die Geschaftsfuhrer im Spannungsfeld zwischen dem Ziel, die Krise erfolgreich zu uberwinden und der Gefahr, wegen verspateter Stellung des Insolvenzantrags oder nach Eintritt der Insolvenzreife geleisteter Zahlungen in Anspruch genommen zu werden. Die Untersuchung zeigt auf, unter welchen Voraussetzungen die Geschaftsfuhrer als primare Adressaten der Haftung unterliegen. Daneben befasst sie sich unter Auswertung praktischer Gesichtspunkte mit der Ausdehnung der Haftung auf weitere Haftungsadressaten, insbesondere faktische Geschaftsfuhrer, Teilnehmer und Gesellschafter fuhrungsloser Gesellschaften. Schliesslich nimmt die Untersuchung Stellung zu der Frage der Anwendbarkeit des 64 GmbHG im Insolvenzverfahren in Eigenverwaltung.

When used in conjunction with corporations, the term "public" is misleading. Anyone can purchase shares of stock, but public corporations themselves are uninhibited by a sense of societal obligation or strict public oversight. In fact, managers of most large firms are prohibited by law from taking into account the interests of the public in decision making, if doing so hurts shareholders. But this has not always been the case, as until the beginning of the twentieth century, public corporations were deemed to have important civic responsibilities. With "The Failure of Corporate Law," Kent Greenfield hopes to return corporate law to a system in which the public has a greater say in how firms are governed. Greenfield maintains that the laws controlling firms should be much more protective of the public interest and of the corporation's various stakeholders, such as employees. Only when the law of corporations is evaluated as a branch of "public" law--as with constitutional law or environmental law--will it be clear what types of changes can be made in corporate governance to improve the common good. Greenfield proposes changes in corporate governance that would enable corporations to meet the progressive goal of creating wealth for society as a whole rather than merely for shareholders and executives.

Although much has been written about innovation in the past several years, not all parts of the innovation lifecycle have been given the same treatment. This volume focuses on the important first step of arranging financing for innovation before it is made, and explores the feedback effect that innovation can have on finance itself. The book brings together a diverse group of leading scholars in order to address the financing of innovation. The chapters address three key areas, intellectual property, venture capital, and financial engineering in the capital markets, in order to provide fresh and insightful analyses of current and future economic developments in financing innovation. Chapters on intellectual property cover topics including innovation in law-making, orphan business models, and the use of intellectual property to protect financial engineering innovations and developing intellectual property regimes in Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The book also covers the tax treatment of venture capital founders, the treatment of preferred stock by the Delaware Courts, asset-backed lending hedge funds, and corporate governance for small businesses after the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. The book will be of interest to scholars, practitioners, and students in law, innovation, finance, and business.

A carve-out in the M&A context is a partial sale of a business unit from a company. It is different from a straightforward M&A in that it is more complex with many more issues involved. With the rise of activist investors and the search for bigger returns, the pressure on businesses to focus on key products or jurisdictions has grown. Consequently, many transformational M&A transactions are being undertaken by large corporates and there is increased attention from management - and antitrust regulators - to ensure acquired assets have a strategic fit. This frequently results in non-core products or geographies - or in the case of mandated divestments by antitrust authorities, overlapping products - to be sold. Such sales are attractive to private equity purchasers, adding another layer of complexity and competitiveness to be managed. Structuring and managing these carve-out transactions is complex and this book focuses not only on the key differences in negotiating and drafting transaction documents, the impact on counsel procedures and other legal risks to be managed, it also looks at related regulatory and reputational risks. This practical guide, edited by Robbie McLaren at Latham & Watkins, features contributions by specialists on subjects linked to the structuring and execution of carve-out transactions and provides an invaluable insight into the legal, regulatory and practical elements in play. Topics include documentary provisions, IP transfers, transitional services, employment risks, antitrust concerns and financing acquisitions. Whether you are a lawyer in practice or in-house, this commercially focused new title provides a comprehensive analysis of carve-out M&A transactions.

Seit geraumer Zeit steht die Verbandsschiedsgerichtsbarkeit in der OEffentlichkeit mehr und mehr in der Kritik. Die Autorin greift Argumente fur und gegen die Verbandsschiedsgerichtsbarkeit auf. Anhand von Kartellschiedsverfahren des Rheinisch-Westfalischen Kohlensyndikats untersucht sie exemplarisch Verfahrensregeln, Verfahrensablaufe und Steuerungstendenzen durch Bezahlung der Schiedsrichter, die Hintergrunde der Implementierung eines Schiedsgerichts sowie die Funktionen schiedsgerichtlicher Verfahren innerhalb bestehender Vertragsbeziehungen. Die Arbeit soll sowohl einen Beitrag zur Forschung uber die interne Organisation des Rheinisch-Westfalischen Kohlensyndikats als auch zur Debatte uber die Verbandsschiedsgerichtsbarkeit im Allgemeinen leisten.

This book reconceptualises the role of the general meeting and shareholders in the listed companies in four leading common law jurisdictions in Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Malaysia) as one that should include fiduciary duties. It demonstrates why, when, by whom and how fiduciary duties should be imposed and how they could be enforced. In so doing, it refutes the long-standing common law rule that shareholders can generally vote as they please. The book advances the debate on a central notion of corporate law, namely, the interests of the company. It addresses the deficiencies in the law regulating conflicts of interest involving controlling shareholders and institutional shareholders and provides solutions to the problem of activist and passive minority institutional investors. This book challenges us to rethink the meaning and implementation of the long-term success of the company and shows how corporate governance should and could be made.

This book addresses the question of how competition authorities assess mergers in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector so as to promote competition in innovation. A closer look at the question reveals that it is far more complex and difficult to answer for the ICT, telecommunications and multi-sided platform (MSP) economy than for more traditional sectors of the economy. This has led many scholars to re-think and question whether the current merger control framework is suitable for the ICT sector, which is often also referred to as the new economy. The book pursues an interdisciplinary approach combining insights from law, economics and corporate strategy. Further, it has a comparative dimension, as it discusses the practices of the US, the EU and, wherever relevant, of other competition authorities from around the globe. Considering that the research was conducted in the EU, the practices of the European Commission remain a key aspect of the content.Considering its normative dimension, the book concentrates on the substantive aspects of merger control. To facilitate a better understanding of the most important points, the book also offers a brief overview of the procedural aspects of merger control in the EU, the US and the UK, and discusses recent amendments to Austrian and German law regarding the notification threshold. Given its scope, the book offers an invaluable guide for competition law scholars, practitioners in the field, and competition authorities worldwide.

Making Commercial Law Through Practice 1830-1970 adds a new dimension to the history of Britain's commerce, trade manufacturing and financial services, by showing how they have operated in law over the last one hundred and forty years. In the main law and lawyers were not the driving force; regulation was largely absent; and judges tended to accommodate commercial needs, so that market actors were able to shape the law through their practices. Using legal and historical scholarship, the author draws on archival sources previously unexploited for the study of commercial practice and the law's role in it. This book will stimulate parallel research in other subject areas of law. Modern commercial lawyers will learn a great deal about the current law from the story of its evolution, and economic and business historians will see how the world of commerce and trade operated in a legal context.

This book explores the foundations and evolution of modern corporate fiduciary law in the United States and the United Kingdom. Today US and UK fiduciary law provide very different approaches to the regulation of directorial behaviour. However, as the book shows, the law in both jurisdictions borrowed from the same sources in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English fiduciary and commercial law. The book identifies the shared legal foundations and authorities and explores the drivers of corporate fiduciary law's contemporary divergence. In so doing it challenges the prevailing accounts of corporate legal change and stability in the US and the UK.

Companies lie at the heart of the climate crisis and are both culpable for, and vulnerable to, its impacts. Rising social and investor concern about the escalating risks of climate change are changing public and investor expectations of businesses and, as a result, corporate approaches to climate change. Dominant corporate norms that put shareholders (and their wealth maximization) at the heart of company law are viewed by many as outdated and in need of reform. Companies and Climate Change analyzes these developments by assessing the regulation and pressures that impact energy companies in the UK, with lessons that apply worldwide. In this work, Lisa Benjamin shows how the Paris Agreement, climate and energy law in the EU and the UK, and transnational human rights and climate litigation, are regulatory and normative developments that illustrate how company law can and should act as a bridge to progressive corporate climate action.

Taking a text, cases and materials approach, de Luca's successful textbook remains the only offering for students of European company law, and has been thoroughly updated in this new edition. Chapters have been expanded to cover the latest legislation and directives on cross-border mergers, the use of digital tools, and cross-border insolvency, while figures and graphs have been introduced to help illustrate complex processes and relationships. Clearly differentiated explanatory textboxes from the first edition have been revised, and allow students to quickly identify sources such as EU legislation, official documents and excerpts from scholarly papers. The book explores a diverse range of topics, from what European company law is, to the structure of the Societas Europaea Statute, capital markets and takeover law. It continues to be an essential resource for the growing number of graduate courses in European company law, European business law, and comparative corporate law.