Comparative Corporate Law
This course will explore core topics in comparative corporate law and comparative corporate governance, focusing on the U.S. and the major Western European jurisdictions (with some excursions to East Asia and to transition economies). Although the corporate form seems to be a universal building block of business development, corporate law and governance systems exhibit considerable diversity, as do the economic systems within which corporate law operates. The course will integrate the two goals of providing an overview of differences in legal regulation, and of introducing participants to current academic thinking on how the respective economic and political framework has shaped the development of corporate law and corporate governance institutions. Topics to be covered include governance structure; corporate governance systems and reasons for persistent differences; Board structures and allocation of power within firms; conflicts of interests between managers and shareholders, between majority and minority shareholders, and between shareholders and other stakeholders; labor involvement in corporate governance; creditor protection and corporate bankruptcy; control transactions and hostile takeovers; securities law and investor protection; corporate scandals and the role of gatekeepers; regulatory competition vs. harmonization.Credits: 3
Type: SEM
| Partial list of professors who teach or have taught this course: | |||
| Gelter, Martin | Spring 2010, Spring 2011 | ||
