There have been several reasons given for the advent of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2007. It is likely that most, if not all, of those that have been identified contributed in some way to what occurred in financial markets. This paper identifies a number of them and takes one of the...

There is case law to the effect that when companies are in financial difficulty directors owe a duty to take into account the interests of their companies' creditors. This article examines the primary reasons why contractarian theory, as applied by the law and economics school, is opposed to the...

The general duties owed by directors to their companies are a critical element of company law overall, and corporate governance in particular. If these duties are breached the board, acting on behalf of the company, is empowered to decide whether to take action against the miscreant directors....

Public companies play crucial roles in today's world, and it has been acknowledged that ascertaining the objective of such companies is a critical issue. However, there remains great uncertainty as to what that objective should be. This article examines the two predominant theories that have...

There has been much debate for many years as to what should be the objective of the large public company. This issue is important for a number of reasons, not least of which is that the theory nominated will underpin corporate governance and dictate to a large extent the kind of corporate...

The dominant theory in Anglo-American jurisdictions as far as determining the objective of large public companies, has been, and still appears to be, the shareholder primacy theory. Nevertheless, it would seem that in the past 20 years the stakeholder theory has become increasingly popular in...

It is a principle of UK law that when companies are financially distressed to the point of being insolvent or close to it the directors of such companies are required to take into account the interests of creditors. This is now codified in s.172(3) of the Companies Act 2006. In recent times...

Accountability is a concept that has been frequently referred to in Anglo-American systems and in the OECD's corporate governance documents, as well as in the English translations of corporate governance documents from non-English speaking jurisdictions. It is in the Anglo-American literature,...

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...

There are various reasons that have been given for the financial crisis hit much of globe nearly three years ago. One appears to be that there were problems in the corporate governance of financial institutions and other companies. Intrinsic to corporate governance is the accountability of...