This book offers a comparative review of the ultra vires doctrine in corporate law. Divided into three main sections, it first provides a brief overview of the historical background and the scope of the ultra vires doctrine. It then analyses the essential features of the doctrine in the common law and civil law traditions across the Western world. Lastly, the book examines the objects clause, procedural aspects, and the mechanism of ratification of such ultra vires acts. The book's comparative approach and global contextualization of the subject matter will be of interest to readers from around the globe, familiarizing them with legal provisions, case law, and recent literature. Although it is primarily intended for scholars in the area of corporate law, it is also a valuable resource for professionals in the field of commercial law who deal with issues related to the capacity of firms and the powers of their directors.

This book advances a real entity theory of company law, in which the company is a legal entity which acts autonomously in law, and company law establishes procedures facilitating autonomous organisational decision-making. The theory builds on the insight that organisations or firms are a social phenomenon outside of the law and that these are autonomous actors in their own right. They are more than the sum of the contributions of their participants and they act independently of the views and interests of their participants. This occurs because human beings change their behaviour when they act as members of a group or an organisation; in a group we tend to develop and conform to a shared standard, and when we act in organisations habits, routines, processes, and procedures form and a culture emerges. These take on a life of their own affecting the behaviour of the participants. Participants can affect organisational behaviour but this takes time and effort. Company law finds this phenomenon and supplies it with a structure supporting autonomous action by organisations. The real entity theory advanced in this book explains company law as it stands at a positive level. Legal personality overcomes the problems that organisations are social rather than brute facts and that there is no unique physical manifestation permanently associated with an organisation. The corporate constitution is not a contract - it is best characterised as an instrument adopted on a statutory basis through private action. Shareholders cannot limit the capacity of companies or the authority of the board to bind the company in contract and companies are liable in tort and crime. The statute creates roles for shareholders, directors, a company secretary, and auditors and so facilitates a process leading to organisational action. The law also integrates the interests of creditors and stakeholders.

Dr Talbot traces the history of the fundamental principles of English company law, including the doctrine of separate corporate personality, director’s duties, minority protection and the doctrine of ultra vires from both a black letter and contextual perspective. Relevant aspects of the Companies Act 2006 are thoroughly examined. Drawing on the influence of American law and scholarship, the book considers the ideas which have informed corporate governance in England . It includes a case study of mutual building societies’ march to the market and corporate identity. The hybrid approach adopted in the text provides a contextual and critical framework in which to understand company law as well as a broad picture in black letter law terms. The aim is to invigorate what many students and academics consider a dry subject by uncovering the social factors which continue to inform this area of law - and the political nature of the law itself. Dr Talbot maintains that modern company law is shaped by three main factors – economics, ideology and existing law. The state of the law at any one time is determined by the constantly shifting relationship between these factors.

Michigan Corporation Law & Practice is the authoritative research tool covering all aspects of Michigan corporate law and practice. It provides clear, reliable guidance to the laws, legislative history, and major case holdings. This complete guide provides a thorough background to the Michigan Business Corporation Act, including discussion of the process by which the corporate entity is created, governed, and ultimately terminated. The text also discusses the closely related Michigan Limited Liability Company Act. The 2021 revision of Michigan Corporation Law & Practice edits and updates the previous edition. Many sections are reorganized for clarity and accessibility. The text includes expanded coverage of limited liability companies. The revised edition reflects: Court decisions applying Michigan law to corporations and limited liability companies relating to: Shareholder oppression. Fiduciary duty. Derivative actions. Director duties. Interested director transactions. Valuation. Delaware developments relevant to Michigan law: Permitted charter and bylaw provisions. Fiduciary duties of directors. Fiduciary duties of limited liability company managers. Inspection of books and records. Appraisal rights. Internal affairs doctrine. Note: Online subscriptions are for three-month periods.

Presents in-depth, comparative analyses of German, UK and US company laws illustrated by leading cases, with German cases in English translation.

This is the long-awaited second edition of this highly regarded comparative overview of corporate law. This edition has been comprehensively updated to reflect profound changes in corporate law. It now includes consideration of additional matters such as the highly topical issue of enforcement in corporate law, and explores the continued convergence of corporate law across jurisdictions. The authors start from the premise that corporate (or company) law across jurisdictions addresses the same three basic agency problems: (1) the opportunism of managers vis-à-vis shareholders; (2) the opportunism of controlling shareholders vis-à-vis minority shareholders; and (3) the opportunism of shareholders as a class vis-à-vis other corporate constituencies, such as corporate creditors and employees. Every jurisdiction must address these problems in a variety of contexts, framed by the corporation's internal dynamics and its interactions with the product, labor, capital, and takeover markets. The authors' central claim, however, is that corporate (or company) forms are fundamentally similar and that, to a surprising degree, jurisdictions pick from among the same handful of legal strategies to address the three basic agency issues. This book explains in detail how (and why) the principal European jurisdictions, Japan, and the United States sometimes select identical legal strategies to address a given corporate law problem, and sometimes make divergent choices. After an introductory discussion of agency issues and legal strategies, the book addresses the basic governance structure of the corporation, including the powers of the board of directors and the shareholders meeting. It proceeds to creditor protection measures, related-party transactions, and fundamental corporate actions such as mergers and charter amendments. Finally, it concludes with an examination of friendly acquisitions, hostile takeovers, and the regulation of the capital markets.

National Book Award for Nonfiction Finalist National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction Finalist A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year A PBS “Now Read This” Book Club Selection Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Economist and the Boston Globe A landmark exposé and “deeply engaging legal history” of one of the most successful, yet least known, civil rights movements in American history (Washington Post). In a revelatory work praised as “excellent and timely” (New York Times Book Review, front page), Adam Winkler, author of Gunfight, once again makes sense of our fraught constitutional history in this incisive portrait of how American businesses seized political power, won “equal rights,” and transformed the Constitution to serve big business. Uncovering the deep roots of Citizens United, he repositions that controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision as the capstone of a centuries-old battle for corporate personhood. “Tackling a topic that ought to be at the heart of political debate” (Economist), Winkler surveys more than four hundred years of diverse cases—and the contributions of such legendary legal figures as Daniel Webster, Roger Taney, Lewis Powell, and even Thurgood Marshall—to reveal that “the history of corporate rights is replete with ironies” (Wall Street Journal). We the Corporations is an uncompromising work of history to be read for years to come.