How different are common law and civil law legal systems? This question has occupied legal scholars for a long time. In the last 15 years the common law/civil law divide has also become a major theme in research of economics, finance and business. In many studies it is alleged that English legal...

This article discusses the plans of the European Commission to harmonise shareholder rights in the European Union. At the same time, it puts forward various reasons why this would not be a significant step forward and argues that it should therefore be reconsidered whether the intended directive...

This article analyzes how shareholder protection has developed in 20 countries from 1995 to 2005. In contrast to traditional legal research, it draws on a quantitative methodology to law ('leximetrics', 'numerical comparative law'). Some of its results are that in most countries shareholder...

Soon we can expect a new type of company: the European Private Company (Societas Privata Europaea – SPE) aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises in the EU. In this article, we analyse how creditors of future SPEs will be protected. In the first part, we identify on a general level how...

Regulatory competition in company law has been extensively debated in the last few decades, but it has rarely been discussed whether there could also be regulatory competition in partnership law. This article fills this gap. It addresses the partnership law of the US, the UK, Germany, and...

This article analyzes how shareholder protection has developed in 20 countries from 1995 to 2005. In contrast to traditional legal research, it draws on a quanti-tative methodology to law ("leximetrics", "numerical comparative law"). Some of its results are that in most countries shareholder...

In this paper we build a new and meaningful shareholder protection index for five countries and code the development of the law for over three decades. At-tributing and comparing legal differences by numbers is contrary to the tradi-tional way of doing comparative law and the use of a...

Has there been convergence of corporate governance systems? There has been a great deal of controversy on this issue in the last ten years, and it is likely that this debate is to re-emerge in the context of the current financial crisis. In this paper I use a new quantitative methodology...

The OECD Principles of Corporate Governance are a networked form of governance predominantly aimed at the law-makers and firms of emerging markets. This chapter discusses whether the approach of the OECD Principles can be regarded as a success. Our analysis provides a mixed response. While...

The OECD promotes the 2015 version of the Principles of Corporate Governance as a means ‘to support investment as a powerful driver of growth'. But how realistic is this ambition? This paper provides a critical assessment of the operation and impact of these Principles. It maps the governance...