Research Handbook on Shareholder Inspection Rights
Shareholder inspection rights form an important tool for shareholder protection. They offer shareholders seeking information private access to specific books and records of the company that are otherwise not publicly available. While there has been a discourse on the topic in some jurisdictions such as Delaware (USA), it has not received scholarly treatment at an international level. This Research Handbook seeks to alter that, and signifies the first endeavor to engage in a comprehensive and comparative analysis of shareholder inspection rights across 19 different jurisdictions representing five continents.
Themes emerging from the study include the historical evolution of inspection rights, the statutory design of the inspection regime, how inspection rights interact with disclosure norms under securities regulation, and the manner in which inspection rights are actually utilized by shareholders. While there is some commonality among jurisdictions, the larger story is one of divergence, which is understandable since local needs tend to drive the design and operation of the regime.
The Research Handbook on Shareholder Inspection Rights is invaluable to academics, scholars, and students working in the area of corporate law and governance, legal practitioners working in corporate law and, in particular, shareholder litigation and regulators and government bodies overseeing the corporate sector, including corporate and securities regulators.
Contributors
Jan Andersson, Tim Bowley, Pierre-Henri Conac, James D. Cox, Hans De Wulf, David C. Donald, Paolo Giudici, Marcelo Godke Veiga, Gen Goto, María Gutiérrez Urtiaga, Brenda Hannigan, Jonathan Hardman, Jennifer G. Hill, Robin Hui Huang, Neha Joshi, Kon Sik Kim, Kenneth J. Martin, Peter Molk, Dan W. Puchniak, Poonam Puri, Francisco Reyes Villamizar, Maribel Sáez Lacave, Samantha Tang, Christoph Teichmann, Randall S. Thomas, Christoph Van der Elst, Umakanth Varottil, Marcelo Vieira von Adamek
Authors
Randall Thomas
Pierre-Henri Conac
María Gutiérrez Urtiaga
Reviews
The book is a collection of contributions penned by legal or policy experts who provide a substantive analysis of the field of shareholders’ inspection rights. It is a very coherent piece of work offering an in-depth analysis of the law, case-law and cultural background of the rights in question. It offers a notable contribution to the understanding of this important and complex area. The book is successful in its attempt to present a multi-layered yet coherent analysis of shareholders and their rights. It is an essential reading on the institutional architecture and trans-border nature of companies. Therefore, this book is highly recommended for anyone interested in this field as it is a powerful guide to the complex questions raised when examining shareholders’ rights.
This volume brings together experts from around the world to undertake the first systematic comparative analysis of shareholder inspection rights, which are an important element in corporate governance and shareholder litigation. Given the increase in shareholder participation, stewardship and activism globally, the volume is of immense relevance to scholars and practitioners of corporate law and governance.