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Business Organizations Law

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

Faculty Scholarship

2005

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Capital Requirements In United States Corporation Law, Richard A. Booth Marbury Research Professor Of Law Dec 2005

Capital Requirements In United States Corporation Law, Richard A. Booth Marbury Research Professor Of Law

Faculty Scholarship

This paper focuses on corporation law in the United States as it relates to capital contributions and capital maintenance. In other words, the paper addresses the provisions of corporation law relating to (1) the obligation of investors to contribute to the corporation a specified amount of capital and (2) the obligation of the corporation to maintain a specified amount of capital (and not to pay it back to the stockholders in the form of dividends or payments to repurchase or redeem shares). Traditionally, the amount of capital that must be contributed to and maintained by a corporation is called the …


Spare The Rod, Spoil The Director? Revitalizing Directors' Fiduciary Duty Through Legal Liability, Lisa M. Fairfax Nov 2005

Spare The Rod, Spoil The Director? Revitalizing Directors' Fiduciary Duty Through Legal Liability, Lisa M. Fairfax

Faculty Scholarship

It appears that our society has tacitly agreed to spare corporate directors any significant legal liability—which includes both financial and incarceration—for failing to perform their duties as board members. Thus, over the last twenty years, there has been a virtual elimination of legal liability—particularly in the form of financial penalties—for directors who breach their fiduciary duty of care. This is true despite the fact that we entrust directors with the awesome responsibility of monitoring all of America's corporations as well as the officers and agents within those corporations. More surprisingly, this tacit agreement against legal liability for directors has persisted …