The Companies Act 71 of 2008, as amended, has created a new corporate law regime for South Africa that poses exceptional challenges to practitioners, who have to interpret and apply concepts, principles and rules borrowed from other jurisdictions even before they have been tested or pronounced upon by our courts. Corporate law for commerce students is a comprehensive yet basic guide to the structure and fundamentals of the new company dispensation.

Corporate law for commerce students provides a brief, clear and especially practical overview of the law of business entities. It covers partnerships, companies, close corporations, business trusts and cooperative societies, each of which carries different rights and obligations, and ultimately liabilities, for the entrepreneur. It discusses all of these within the framework of the new Companies Act, the common law, and recent court judgments and the King IV report. It includes figures, tables and mind maps to clarify each topic, and provides assessments at the end of each chapter.

Contents include the following:

• How to choose the right option for a specific business
• The partnership concept, the business trust and the establishment of legal personality, companies and cooperatives
• Compliance, transparency, accountability and governance
• Securities, debt instruments and public offers
• Directors, shareholders and company meetings, fundamental transactions, takeovers and offers
• Business rescue and compromise with creditors
• Termination and dissolution

Corporate law for commerce students is aimed at students studying commercial law, business entities or corporate law subjects as well as practising accountants, auditors, company secretaries and paralegal practitioners.