Law Commons^™

Corporate Governance And Accountability, Renee M. Jones

Renee Jones

This book chapter on Corporate Governance and Accountability is a contribution to the book CORPORATE GOVERNANCE - SYNTHESIS OF THEORY, RESEARCH, AND PRACTICE (Wiley, forthcoming 2010), edited by Ronald Anderson and H. Kent Baker. This chapter describes the sources of corporate governance standards for American corporations and analyzes the accountability mechanisms designed to ensure that corporate officials act faithfully in their management of corporate affairs. The chapter focuses on the financial reporting system under the U.S. securities laws which forms the foundation of the accountability system, and discusses structures and rules designed to ensure the integrity of financial reporting. The …

Law, Norms, And The Breakdown Of The Board, Renee M. Jones

Renee Jones

This Article considers the dominant claim in corporate law literature that extra-legal mechanisms such as markets and social norms provide adequate safeguards against corporate mismanagement and opportunism. After noting recognized deficiencies in the arguments from market discipline, the Article draws on psychological insights to show that certain behavioral phenomena prevent social norms from appropriately constraining corporate conduct. It then argues that because neither markets nor social norms can sufficiently discipline corporate officials, a credible accountability mechanism is necessary to prevent director conduct standards from deteriorating. Unfortunately, an inveterate tradition of judicial deference in corporate law has undermined the role of …

International Law And Transnational Corporations: Towards A Final Summation, Varun Vaish

Varun Vaish

The regulation of transnational corporations (TNCs) by an international legal order fundamentally centred on states proves to be difficult when they exercise political influence and have the ability to generate revenue which can eclipse the economies of many countries in comparison. According to the World Investment Report 2007, as of 2006 there were 78,411 parent corporations and 777,647 affiliates worldwide.4 The scale of the concentration of economic power is illustrated by the statistics: of the world’s hundred largest economic entities, 51 are multinational companies and 49 are nation states. The Texaco Corporation functioned for years in Ecuador with annual global …

Law And Venture Capital: The Case Of Japanese Entrepreneurs, Zenichi Shishido

Zenichi Shishido

The biggest difference in the incentive bargains made in the venture capital industries in the US and Japan is that American entrepreneurs abandon control while Japanese entrepreneurs do not. Years ago, this difference was thought to be caused by a lack of liquid IPO markets by some experts in the field. However, there are currently multiple liquid IPO markets in Japan, yet Japanese entrepreneurs are still reluctant to abandon control of their companies to venture capitalists. While there are likely to be many complementary reasons for this difference, it can be partly explained by the different legal systems in the …

Creditors And Debt Governance.Pdf, Charles K. Whitehead

Charles K Whitehead

Behind Closed Doors: The Influence Of Creditors In Business Reorganizations, Michelle M. Harner, Jamie Marincic

Michelle M. Harner

General corporate law delegates the power to manage a corporation to the board of directors. The board in turn acts as a fiduciary and generally owes its duties to the corporation and its shareholders. Many courts and commentators summarize the board’s primary objective as maximizing shareholder wealth. Accordingly, one would expect a board’s conduct to be governed largely by the interests of the corporation and its shareholders. Yet, anecdotal and increasing empirical evidence suggest that large creditors wield significant influence over their corporate debtors. Although this influence is most apparent as the corporation approaches insolvency, the strength of the creditors’ …

The Corporation As Imperfect Society, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

Corporations are ubiquitous in modern society. They pervade every aspect of our life, consumer, professional, investment activity. Probably, people have more contact with corporations on a daily basis than any other institution, including government. From the South Sea Bubble to the Stock market Crash of 1929 to Enron to General Motors and Countrywide Mortgage, corporate scandals and controversies invite fundamental questions about corporate law. This article attempts to bring a fresh perspective to the question: “what is a corporation and how should the law treat it?” The article articulates a corporate metaphysics rooted in political philosophy. The dominant models of …