Corporate governance has become an important issue in all industrial economies. It relates to the internal organization and power structure of the firm, the functioning of the board of directors both in the one-tier and the two-tier system, the ownership structure of the firm, and the interrelationships among management, board, shareholders and possibly stakeholders, in particular the workforce of the enterprise and the creditors. These interrelationships include monitoring of the management by the board and external supervisors, and shareholders activism. This book has grown out of a conference entitled "Comparative Corporate Governance, An International Conference, United States - Japan - Western Europe" which was held in Brussels on 14 June 1995. It was organized by the Financial Law Institute of the University of Ghent, and the Study Centre on Groups of Enterprises in Brussels under the scientific direction of Eddy Wymeersch. The book contains the contributions by the speakers in an enlarged and updated form together with source material and references. The editors have collected a selection of 18 documents on corporate governance from seven countries (United Kingdom, USA, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium). These documents date from the 1990s, most of them from 1995 and 1996, and are to be made available more easily to business and academia in other countries than the one in which they have been elaborated. They offer a wealth of data, insights, self-regulatory experiences and legislative proposals which show that, despite all the national deep-rooted differences, the core problems are very similar indeed.

The volume contains 23 articles by international experts, both scholars and practioners dealing with the development of institutional investors (such as banks, insurances, investment companies, pension funds etc.), their investment and voting policies, the impact on managements of the companies concerned and related issues. The consequences of the international development on capital markets as well as policy implications for the respective national legislations are treated.

The harmonization of company law has always been on the agenda of the European Union. Besidesthe protection of third parties affected by business transactions, the founders had two other objectives: first, promoting freedom of establishment, and second, preventing the abuse of such freedom. The European Commission issued its Company Law Action Plan in 2003. In this volume researchers of the Jan Ronse Institute for Company Law of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven present five chapters on the main priorities of the Action Plan: capital and creditor protection, corporate governance, one share one vote, financial reporting, and corporate mobility. The book also includes responses and ensuing discussions by reputed European company law experts

Zwei aktuellen Themen von hoher kreditwirtschaftlicher Tragweite hat die Bankrechtliche Vereinigung - Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft fA1/4r Bankrecht e.V. ihrem Bankrechtstag 2002 in Leipzig gewidmet. Neben den Auswirkungen der Schuldrechtsreform auf das Recht der BankgeschAfte wurde die unternehmensinterne Wissenszurechnung behandelt. 1. Abteilung: Neues Schuldrecht und BankgeschAfte Mathias Habersack, Mainz: Auswirkungen der Schuldrechtsreform auf das Recht der BankgeschAfte; Herbert Schimansky, Marxzell: Das Recht der Aoeberweisung ab 1. Januar 2002; Ahrend Weber, Berlin: Das neue Schuldrecht in der kreditwirtschaftlichen Praxis 2. Abteilung: Wissenszurechnung bei Kreditinstituten Josef Drexl, MA1/4nchen: Wissenszurechnung im unabhAngigen und Konzernunternehmen- Zivil-, gesellschafts- und bankrechtliche Aoeberlegungen; Gerd Nobbe, Karlsruhe: Wissenszurechnung in der Rechtsprechung des Bundesgerichtshofs; JA1/4rgen SchrAter, Frankfurt am Main: Wissenszurechnung aus der Sicht der kreditwirtschaftlichen Praxis

Zwei aktuellen Themen von hoher kreditwirtschaftlicher Tragweite hat die Bankrechtliche Vereinigung - Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft fA1/4r Bankrecht e.V. ihren Bankrechtstag 2001 in Kiel gewidmet: a žEntgeltklauseln in der Kreditwirtschafta und a že-Commerce von Kreditinstitutena .Die Entgeltgestaltung von Kreditinstituten auf der Grundlage von Allgemeinen GeschAftsbedingungen hat inzwischen die Rechtsprechung seit mehr als zehn Jahren intensiv beschAftigt, steht aber immer noch, z.B. neuerdings hinsichtlich Zinsanpassungsklauseln, im Vordergrund des Interesses. Einerseits spielt es eine entscheidende Rolle, ob vom Entgelt fA1/4r eine vereinbarte Leistung ausgegangen werden kann oder ob durch eine Nebeneinrede Kosten A1/4berwAlzt werden. Andererseits sollen Klauseln A1/4ber Entgelte und ihre A"nderung hinreichend bestimmt und fA1/4r den Kunden nachvollziehbar sein.Der e-Commerce von Kreditinstituten gewinnt infolge der technischen Entwicklung, namentlich etwa fA1/4r Anwendungen des online-banking, steigende Bedeutung und bringt zahlreiche Rechtsfragen mit sich, z.B. hinsichtlich der VertragsabschlA1/4sse bei Kommunikation im Internet und der dabei zu wahrenden Datensicherheit.

The European Commission is already preparing the future framework of not-for-profit organizations which will be available to Europeans. The aim of the European Foundation Project is to develop the legislative draft for the legal form of a European Foundation. A team of experts in comparative law from across Europe, commissioned by the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Compagnia di San Paolo, and the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius, has undertaken feasibility research, and developed a proposal. The resulting draft legislation is clearly presented here in a way which makes it easy for the reader to locate information on specific legal issues. The draft is supported by comprehensive explanatory chapters, as well as comparative chapters on each issue which cover European countries, the USA and China. This book lays the groundwork for policy and advocacy initiatives in the European foundation and the not-for-profit sector.

This "Liber Amicorum" is written in honour of Richard M. Buxbaum to celebrate his 70th birthday. It pays tribute to his writings, teachings, editorial and administrative work, which have contributed immensely to the development of the international legal order. The contributions are from international experts in the field of commercial and economic law, corporate law, intellectual property and business law, and give an interesting and valuable account of current economic trends and academic thinking.

The business corporation is one of the greatest organizational inventions, but it creates risks both for shareholders and for third parties. To mitigate these risks, legislators, judges, and corporate lawyers have tried to learn from foreign experiences and adapt their regulatory regimes to them. In the last three decades, this approach has led to a stream of corporate and capital market law reforms unseen before. Corporate governance, the system by which companies are directed and controlled, is today a key topic for legislation, practice, and academia all over the world. Corporate scandals and financial crises have repeatedly highlighted the need to better understand the economic, social, political, and legal determinants of corporate governance in individual countries. Comparative Corporate Governance furthers this goal by bringing together current scholarship in law and economics with the expertise of local corporate governance specialists from twenty-three countries.

The economic importance of the non-profit sector is growing rapidly in the USA and Europe. However, the law has not kept abreast with its development. The European Court of Justice has extended certain freedoms of the EC Treaty to non-profit organisations, and more case law is expected to follow in the near future, but the observations, theories, solutions and legal and non-legal rules in this field are manifold. The chances of harmonising the law on a European level are slim. Despite these differences, a common core of international corporate governance problems and regulatory solutions can be seen. This volume of essays brings together a variety of international experts from both corporate governance and governance of non-profit organisations to compare the two areas and explore the lessons that can be learned regarding comparative corporate governance for non-profit organisations.

The integration of European - indeed, global - capital markets has been under way for quite some time. However, the adoption of the single European currency crystallises the process, solving many old problems at the same time as it creates new challenges. In this wide-ranging book, 28 practitioners and academics - including economists, regulators, and lawyers - pool their resources to analyse issues affecting investment, conduct of business rules, stock exchanges, trading, and company law. Originally designed as a research project, this finished work was developed from individual research and first drafts through group discussion to a final interconnected achievement. Since the authors met at a conference in Genoa in November 2000 on the initiative of four major European law faculties, a number of pertinent regulatory developments have taken place, notably the Lamfalussy Report and the adoption of various proposals by the European Commission. Analysis of the impact of such events has been incorporated into this final text. Among other significant matters affecting capital markets, the authors discuss the following: conflict of laws issues; on-line trading; clearing and settlement systems; takeovers; and relevant soft law.