Corporate Boards in Law and Practice

Klaus J. Hopt is Professor and Director (emeritus), of the Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg. He is an expert for the German Parliament, the Constitutional Court and a number of international institutions. His research interests are European corporate, capital market, financial law and corporate governance issues. He has published many books and articles in these fields.Gerard van Solinge is a lawyer and counsel at Allen & Overy. He is full professor of corporate law since 1997 at the Radboud University Nijmegen and managing director at Van der Heijden Institute, Research Department for Corporate Law of the Research Centre Company & Law. He specialises in corporate governance, corporate litigation, mergers and acquisitions, public takeovers, international corporate law and Dutch Carribean Company law. Paul Davies is the Allen & Overy Professor of Corporate Law and Professorial Fellow of Jesus College at the University of Oxford. He is a deputy chairman of the Central Arbitration Committee. His research areas are corporate governance, corporate finance, regulation of securities markets and collective representation of employees.Richard J Nowak is Senior advisor with Clifford Chance Amsterdam and lecturer at the Radboud University Nijmegen and substitute-judge in the Court of Appeal Arnhem. Co-author of a Dutch textbook oncompany law and author of publications on Dutch company law and corporate governance.

A fascinating insight in the complexities of national systems, and the interrelationship, often unknown to foreign observers, of the drivers that have shaped the national board systems.

• PART I: GENERAL REPORT; PART II: NATIONAL REPORTS