Wolf-Georg Ringe - Böcker

New investment techniques and new types of shareholder activists are shaking up the traditional ways of equity investment that informs much of our present-day corporate law and governance. Savvy investors such as hedge funds are using financial derivatives, securities lending transactions, and related concepts to decouple the financial risk from shares. This leads to a distortion of incentives and has potentially severe consequences for the functioning of corporate governance and of capital markets overall.Taking stock of the different decoupling strategies that have become known over the past several years, this book then provides an evaluation of each from a legal and an economic perspective. Based on several analytical frameworks, the author identifies the elements of equity deconstruction and demonstrates the consequences for shareholders, outside investors, and capital markets. On this basis, the book makes the case for regulatory intervention, based on three different pillars and comprising disclosure, voting right suspension, and ex-post litigation. The book concludes by developing a concrete, comprehensive proposal on how to address the regulatory problem.Overall, this book contributes to the debate about activist investment and the role of shareholders in corporate governance. At the same time it raises a number of important considerations about the role of equity investment more generally.

This is the long-awaited third edition of this highly regarded comparative overview of corporate law. This edition has been comprehensively revised and updated to reflect the profound changes in corporate law and governance practices that have taken place since the previous edition. These include numerous regulatory changes following the financial crisis of 2007-09 and the changing landscape of governance, especially in the US, with the ever more central role of institutional investors as (active) owners of corporations. The geographic scope of the coverage has been broadened to include an important emerging economy, Brazil. In addition, the book now incorporates analysis of the burgeoning use of corporate law to protect the interests of "external constituencies" without any contractual relationship to a company, in an attempt to tackle broader social and economic problems. The authors start from the premise that corporations (or companies) in all jurisdictions share the same key legal attributes: legal personality, limited liability, delegated management, transferable shares, and investor ownership. Businesses using the corporate form give rise to three basic types of agency problems: those between managers and shareholders as a class; controlling shareholders and minority shareholders; and shareholders as a class and other corporate constituencies, such as corporate creditors and employees. After identifying the common set of legal strategies used to address these agency problems and discussing their interaction with enforcement institutions, The Anatomy of Corporate Law illustrates how a number of core jurisdictions around the world deploy such strategies. In so doing, the book highlights the many commonalities across jurisdictions and reflects on the reasons why they may differ on specific issues. The analysis covers the basic governance structure of the corporation, including the powers of the board of directors and the shareholder meeting, both when management and when a dominant shareholder is in control. It then analyses the role of corporate law in shaping labor relationships, protection of external stakeholders, relationships with creditors, related-party transactions, fundamental corporate actions such as mergers and charter amendments, takeovers, and the regulation of capital markets. The Anatomy of Corporate Law has established itself as the leading book in the field of comparative corporate law. Across the world, students and scholars at various stages in their careers, from undergraduate law students to well-established authorities in the field, routinely consult this book as a starting point for their inquiries.

This is the long-awaited third edition of this highly regarded comparative overview of corporate law. This edition has been comprehensively revised and updated to reflect the profound changes in corporate law and governance practices that have taken place since the previous edition. These include numerous regulatory changes following the financial crisis of 2007-09 and the changing landscape of governance, especially in the US, with the ever more central role of institutional investors as (active) owners of corporations. The geographic scope of the coverage has been broadened to include an important emerging economy, Brazil. In addition, the book now incorporates analysis of the burgeoning use of corporate law to protect the interests of "external constituencies" without any contractual relationship to a company, in an attempt to tackle broader social and economic problems. The authors start from the premise that corporations (or companies) in all jurisdictions share the same key legal attributes: legal personality, limited liability, delegated management, transferable shares, and investor ownership. Businesses using the corporate form give rise to three basic types of agency problems: those between managers and shareholders as a class; controlling shareholders and minority shareholders; and shareholders as a class and other corporate constituencies, such as corporate creditors and employees. After identifying the common set of legal strategies used to address these agency problems and discussing their interaction with enforcement institutions, The Anatomy of Corporate Law illustrates how a number of core jurisdictions around the world deploy such strategies. In so doing, the book highlights the many commonalities across jurisdictions and reflects on the reasons why they may differ on specific issues. The analysis covers the basic governance structure of the corporation, including the powers of the board of directors and the shareholder meeting, both when management and when a dominant shareholder is in control. It then analyses the role of corporate law in shaping labor relationships, protection of external stakeholders, relationships with creditors, related-party transactions, fundamental corporate actions such as mergers and charter amendments, takeovers, and the regulation of capital markets. The Anatomy of Corporate Law has established itself as the leading book in the field of comparative corporate law. Across the world, students and scholars at various stages in their careers, from undergraduate law students to well-established authorities in the field, routinely consult this book as a starting point for their inquiries.

Corporate law and corporate governance have been at the forefront of regulatory activities across the world for several decades now, and are subject to increasing public attention following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Law and Governance provides the global framework necessary to understand the aims and methods of legal research in this field. Written by leading scholars from around the world, the Handbook contains a rich variety of chapters that provide a comparative and functional overview of corporate governance. It opens with the central theoretical approaches and methodologies in corporate law scholarship in Part I, before examining core substantive topics in corporate law, including shareholder rights, takeovers and restructuring, and minority rights in Part II. Part III focuses on new challenges in the field, including conflicts between Western and Asian corporate governance environments, the rise of foreign ownership, and emerging markets. Enforcement issues are covered in Part IV, and Part V takes a broader approach, examining those areas of law and finance that are interwoven with corporate governance, including insolvency, taxation, and securities law as well as financial regulation.The Handbook is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary resource placing corporate law and governance in its wider context, and is essential reading for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in the field.

Corporate law and corporate governance have been at the forefront of regulatory activities across the world for several decades now, and are subject to increasing public attention following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Law and Governance provides the global framework necessary to understand the aims and methods of legal research in this field. Written by leading scholars from around the world, the Handbook contains a rich variety of chapters that provide a comparative and functional overview of corporate governance. It opens with the central theoretical approaches and methodologies in corporate law scholarship in Part I, before examining core substantive topics in corporate law, including shareholder rights, takeovers and restructuring, and minority rights in Part II. Part III focuses on new challenges in the field, including conflicts between Western and Asian corporate governance environments, the rise of foreign ownership, and emerging markets. Enforcement issues are covered in Part IV, and Part V takes a broader approach, examining those areas of law and finances that are interwoven with corporate governance, including insolvency, taxation, and securities law as well as financial regulation.Now in paperback, the Handbook is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary resource placing corporate law and governance in its wider context, and is essential reading for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in the field.

The financial crisis has brought about a revival of state protectionism across the globe. Most Western leaders have made a virtue of big government and state intervention; bail-outs and Sovereign Wealth Funds have been among the first responses to the economic contraction. Company law rules are one of the instruments frequently used to restrict or to discourage integration or to deter foreign investment. Examples for the new protectionism can be seen in a wide range of legislative and regulatory measures, for instance state measures preventing foreign takeovers, 'golden shares' or laws on foreign direct investment targeting Sovereign Wealth Funds, mainly from Asia. This book presents timely research by a number of company law and EU law experts into this field of law. The chapters cover a broad range of topics, spanning from takeovers/mergers over the one share-one vote debate through to the foreclosure of markets against Sovereign Wealth Funds.

The global financial and economic crisis which started in 2008 has had devastating effects around the globe. It has caused a rethinking in different areas of law, and posed new challenges to regulators and private actors alike. One of the emerging issues is the apparent eclipse of boundaries between different legal disciplines: financial and corporate lawyers have to learn how public law instruments can complement their traditional governance tools; conversely, public lawyers have had to come to understand the specificities of the financial markets they intend to regulate. While commentary on financial regulation and the global financial crisis abounds, it tends to remain within disciplinary boundaries. This volume not only brings together scholarship from different areas of law (constitutional and administrative law, EU law, financial law and regulation), but also from a variety of backgrounds (academia, practice, policy-making) and a number of different jurisdictions.The volume illustrates how interdisciplinary scholarship belongs at the centre of any discussion of the economic crisis, and indeed regulation theory more generally. This is a timely exploration of cutting-edge issues of financial regulation.‘...a very welcome addition to the limited European legal literature on the global financial crisis...it constitutes an important contribution in the field and it is certainly to be applauded for paving the way for further cross-disciplinary discussion amongst lawyers’.Mihalis Dekastros, European Journal of Legal Studies, 2014, Vol 7‘...Ringe and Huber's book provides important, if not indispensable elements for a coherent theory and doctrine of the law within the financial crisis’.Matthias Ruffert, Common Market Law, 2015, Vol 52 (1)‘[T]his book is interesting for anyone working in a dynamic area of law. Academics will want to go through it in its entirety...’Dimitrios Kyriazis, Law Quarterly Review, 2015, Vol 131

Recent case-law and legislation in European company and insolvency law have significantly furthered the integration of European business regulation. In particular, the case-law of the European Court of Justice and the introduction of the EU Insolvency Regulation have provided the stimulus for current reforms in various jurisdictions in the fields of insolvency and financial law. The UK, for instance, has adopted the Enterprise Act in 2002, designed, inter alia, to enhance enterprise and to strengthen the UK's approach to bankruptcy and corporate rescue. In a similar vein, a recent reform in France has modernised French insolvency law and even introduced a tool similar to the successful English 'company voluntary arrangement' (CVA). This book provides a collection of studies by some of the leading English and French experts today, analysing current perspectives of insolvency and financial law in Europe, both on the national as well as on the European level.

The global financial and economic crisis which started in 2008 has had devastating effects around the globe. It has caused a rethinking in different areas of law, and posed new challenges to regulators and private actors alike. One of the emerging issues is the apparent eclipse of boundaries between different legal disciplines: financial and corporate lawyers have to learn how public law instruments can complement their traditional governance tools; conversely, public lawyers have had to come to understand the specificities of the financial markets they intend to regulate.While commentary on financial regulation and the global financial crisis abounds, it tends to remain within disciplinary boundaries. This volume not only brings together scholarship from different areas of law (constitutional and administrative law, EU law, financial law and regulation), but also from a variety of backgrounds (academia, practice, policy-making) and a number of different jurisdictions.The volume illustrates how interdisciplinary scholarship belongs at the centre of any discussion of the economic crisis, and indeed regulation theory more generally. This is a timely exploration of cutting-edge issues of financial regulation.

Wolf-Georg Ringe untersucht die neue gemeinschaftsweit gültige Rechtsform der Europäischen Aktiengesellschaft ('Societas Europaea'). Mit ihr hat der Gemeinschaftsgesetzgeber Ende 2004 ein Instrument geschaffen, dass es europäischen Großunternehmen erstmals erlaubt, eine gemeinschaftsweit einheitliche Unternehmensverfassung zu wählen. Ein besonderer Vorteil der neuen Rechtsform ist die Vereinfachung grenzüberschreitender Restrukturierungen, insbesondere der grenzüberschreitenden Sitzverlegung. Diese Möglichkeit steht Gesellschaften nationalen Rechts bisher noch nicht umfassend zu. Kollisionsrechtlich versucht sich der Gemeinschaftsgesetzgeber im Rahmen der relevanten divergierenden mitgliedstaatlichen Theorien (Sitz- und Gründungstheorie) einer Stellungnahme zu enthalten. Materiellrechtlich ist die ausführliche Regelung der Sitzverlegung einer Societas Europaea (SE) relativ restriktiv ausgefallen: so müssen beispielsweise immer gleichzeitig Sitz und Hauptverwaltung zugleich verlegt werden, was in einem Spannungsverhältnis zu der jüngeren Rechtsprechung des EuGH steht (Überseering, Inspire Art). Außerdem wird den Schutzanliegen von betroffenen Kreisen wie Gläubigern und Aktionären Rechnung getragen. Den Mitgliedstaaten steht es zudem frei, zusätzliche Schutzmaßnahmen zu schaffen. Der Autor untersucht grundlegend aus kollisions- und sachrechtlicher Perspektive, ob das geschaffene Sitzverlegungsregime den Anforderungen an eine genuin gemeinschaftsrechtliche Rechtsform gerecht wird, insbesondere ob es mit den dem EG-Vertrag zugrundeliegenden Grundfreiheiten in Einklang steht.