The book provides an analytical exposition of the law concerning directors’ liability for the losses sustained by their companies’ creditors, when the directors’ companies are in financial distress or become insolvent. It is a detailed one-stop resource for obtaining a good understanding of the law which has developed from legislation and case law. In particular, there is a detailed consideration of what needs to be proved, what defences there are, and what might be the issues of concern for all parties. A doctrinal method is adopted and there is extensive analysis of the relevant legislation and case law. Rather than merely referring to cases to support propositions, the discussion considers many of the cases in context and in depth and their relevance to the aim of the book. The book also endeavours to provide views, in a practical way, on aspects of the law and it identifies problems and how they may be addressed. Of interest to legal practitioners and insolvency practitioners alike, in addition the book will be useful to directors, government officials and academics.
This timely work is the first to comprehensively examine directors' responsibilities to creditors in times of financial strife, as well as addressing when these responsibilities arise, and what directors should have to do to ensure that they comply with their obligations. Keay explores the relevant issues from doctrinal, normative and comparative perspectives and addresses the question as to when directors are liable for wrongful trading, fraudulent trading or breach of their duties to creditors and whether directors should be held responsible for the before mentioned. Besides the relevant UK legislation and case law, legislation and case law from Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United States are examined and compared and reforms which take into account the aims and rationale of the relevant legislation as well as creditors' interests are proposed and assessed. Importantly, new approaches for courts which would make the nature of the responsibility and its timing more precise are suggested. Company directors have certain responsibilities to creditors of their companies. In particular, they should avoid fraudulent and wrongful trading and consider, as part of their duties, the interests of creditors when their companies might be, or are, in financial difficulty. The work is precipitated by the lack of coherence in the consideration of wrongful trading and the recent delivery of important cases on fraudulent trading. Also, this timely work is the first to comprehensively examine directors' responsibilities to creditors in times of financial strife, as well as addressing when these responsibilities arise, and what directors should have to do to ensure that they comply with their obligations. Keay explores the relevant issues from doctrinal, normative and comparative perspectives and seeks to address the question as to when directors are liable for wrongful trading, fraudulent trading or breach of their duties to creditors and whether directors should be held responsible for wrongful trading and failing to consider the interests of creditors. Besides the relevant UK legislation and case law, legislation and case law from Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United States are examined and compared, and reforms which take into account the aims and rationale of the relevant legislation as well as creditors' interests are proposed and assessed. Importantly, new approaches for courts which would make the nature of the responsibility and its timing more precise are suggested.
Private equity-backed leveraged buyout (LBO) and leveraged recapitalisation practices have been on the rise since the early 1970s when the LBO model was first invented. They continue to play a major role for investors for their less transparent and less bureaucratic investment models outside of capital markets, where financial regulations become tighter following the financial crisis of 2008 affecting global capital markets in a chain reaction. Private equity-backed LBOs and leveraged recapitalisations continue to be popular investment models, however they carry risks both at the target company level and on a macroeconomic level due to the interconnectedness of these investments with global capital markets for funding and refinancing of acquisition finance debts. Creditor protection mechanisms of company and insolvency law therefore play a central role in preventing or dealing with failures that may be triggered at the target company level and have detrimental effects for all creditors and the economy. Though the European legal capital system must be critically revisited, England's and Germany's already mature markets and legal systems should help in developing a better interpretation of these rules in developing economies like Turkey, consequently establishing a solid base for this investment practice in these economies.
Attorney Mintz describes the latest strategies for insulating and shielding assets from potential lawsuit liability. Detailed examples, diagrams, and real life case studies are provided for using Family Limited Partnerships, Limited Liability Companies, Asset Protection Trusts, and creative privacy plans.
This is the long-awaited third edition of this highly regarded comparative overview of corporate law. This edition has been comprehensively revised and updated to reflect the profound changes in corporate law and governance practices that have taken place since the previous edition. These include numerous regulatory changes following the financial crisis of 2007-09 and the changing landscape of governance, especially in the US, with the ever more central role of institutional investors as (active) owners of corporations. The geographic scope of the coverage has been broadened to include an important emerging economy, Brazil. In addition, the book now incorporates analysis of the burgeoning use of corporate law to protect the interests of "external constituencies" without any contractual relationship to a company, in an attempt to tackle broader social and economic problems. The authors start from the premise that corporations (or companies) in all jurisdictions share the same key legal attributes: legal personality, limited liability, delegated management, transferable shares, and investor ownership. Businesses using the corporate form give rise to three basic types of agency problems: those between managers and shareholders as a class; controlling shareholders and minority shareholders; and shareholders as a class and other corporate constituencies, such as corporate creditors and employees. After identifying the common set of legal strategies used to address these agency problems and discussing their interaction with enforcement institutions, The Anatomy of Corporate Law illustrates how a number of core jurisdictions around the world deploy such strategies. In so doing, the book highlights the many commonalities across jurisdictions and reflects on the reasons why they may differ on specific issues. The analysis covers the basic governance structure of the corporation, including the powers of the board of directors and the shareholder meeting, both when management and when a dominant shareholder is in control. It then analyses the role of corporate law in shaping labor relationships, protection of external stakeholders, relationships with creditors, related-party transactions, fundamental corporate actions such as mergers and charter amendments, takeovers, and the regulation of capital markets. The Anatomy of Corporate Law has established itself as the leading book in the field of comparative corporate law. Across the world, students and scholars at various stages in their careers, from undergraduate law students to well-established authorities in the field, routinely consult this book as a starting point for their inquiries.
Written by one of the foremost experts in the area, Paul Davies' Introduction to Company Law provides a comprehensive conceptual introduction, giving readers a clear framework with which to navigate the intricacies of company law. The five core features of company law - separate legal personality, limited liability, centralized management, shareholder control, and transferability of shares - are clearly laid out and examined, then these features are used to provide an organisation structure for the conduct of business. It also discusses legal strategies that can be used to deal with arising problems, the regulation of relationships between the parties, and the trade-offs that have been made in British company law to address some of the conflicting issues that have arisen. Fully revised to take into account the Companies Act 2006, and including a new chapter on international law which considers the role of European Community Law, this new edition in the renowned Clarendon Law Series offers a concise and stimulating introduction to company law.
This book contains an English translation of the German Stock Corporation Law. The English and German texts are synoptically arranged. The introduction provides a concise overview of the main elements of the law and facilitates an understanding of the complex statutory provisions for the English-speaking reader. The main characteristics of both types of stock corporations in Germany, the AG and the KGaA, are described and explained. Several legal aspects of stock corporations, such as their formation and management, shareholders, minority rights, capital, integration, and mergers are covered in this book. The index is also arranged in bi-lingual form. This book reflects the prevailing state of legislation and will prove valuable to foreign lawyers and business people dealing with stock corporations.
The Future of Financial Regulation is an edited collection of papers presented at a major conference at the University of Glasgow in spring 2009, co-sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council World Economy and Finance Programme and the the Australian Research Council Governance Research Network. It draws together a variety of different perspectives on the international financial crisis which began in August 2007 and later turned into a more widespread economic crisis following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the autumn of 2008. Spring 2009 was in many respects the nadir since valuations in financial markets had reached their low point and crisis management rather than regulatory reform was the main focus of attention. The conference and book were deliberately framed as an attempt to re-focus attention from the former to the latter. The first part of the book focuses on the context of the crisis, discussing the general characteristics of financial crises and the specific influences that were at work this time round. The second part focuses more specifically on regulatory techniques and practices implicated in the crisis, noting in particular an over-reliance on the capacity of regulators and financial institutions to manage risk and on the capacity of markets to self-correct. The third part focuses on the role of governance and ethics in the crisis and in particular the need for a common ethical framework to underpin governance practices and to provide greater clarity in the design of accountability mechanisms. The final part focuses on the trajectory of regulatory reform, noting the considerable potential for change as a result of the role of the state in the rescue and recuperation of the financial system and stressing the need for fundamental re-appraisal of business and regulatory models.
