With talk of driverless companies and bots substituting for human beings on company boards either in part or completely, the spectre of a future controlled by entities devoid of human beings is upon us. But has the future been here for longer than we all realise; has the corporation really...

This chapter explores the experiences of a group of New Zealand-based organizations from a range of industries and sectors in responding to the challenges wrought by COVID-19. Focusing on the board of directors, we relate the lived experiences of CEOs, board chairs and directors in handling the...

This Element deals with leadership and governance of corporations from the point of view of the board. We expand our understanding of board leadership by focusing on the modern company as a legal person comprised of a capital fund and the relationships among directors, shareholders, management...

New Zealand's image as clean and green and a fair society is core to its identity. Yet despite the rhetoric, sustainability considerations are not yet central to its corporate governance. Shareholder primacy thinking by some regulators, commentators and boards has hampered attempts to encourage...

The Bubble Act of 1720 made corporate charters relatively difficult to obtain. As a response to the Bubble Act and prior to the general right to incorporation by registration in the mid-Nineteenth Century, an early form of unincorporated company developed in the United Kingdom. The deeds of...

Introduction / Susan Watson and P.M. Vasudev -- Globalizing up corporate law / Franklin A. Gevurtz -- China's national champions : governance change through globaliation? / Li-Wen Lin -- The taxonomy of the modern company / Susan Watson -- Corporate governance codes as regulatory tools to...

The current model of corporate governance needs reform. There is mounting evidence that the practices of shareholder primacy drive company directors and executives to adopt the same short time horizon as financial markets. Pressure to meet the demands of the financial markets drives stock...