Comparative Analysis on Legal Regulation of the Liability of Members of the Management organs of Companies

Comparative Analysis on Legal Regulation of the Liability of Members of the Management organs of Companies

Bernard Black, Brian Cheffins, Martin Gelter, Hwa-Jin Kim, Richard Nolan, Mathias Siems, Linia Prava

Series number :

Serial Number: 
103/2008

Date posted :

February 01 2008

Last revised :

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Keywords

  • Russia • 
  • company law • 
  • liability of directors and officers

This Report was prepared, with support by the World Bank, for the Russian Center for Capital Market Development and the Russian Federal Service on the Securities Market (FSFM).

We discuss the liability under company law of members of the board of directors, senior managers, and controlling shareholders of public companies in Canada, France, Germany, Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States (plus a more limited look at Austria, the European Union, Italy, Japan, and Latvia), and apply this comparative analysis to the Russian context. We recommend amendments to the Russian Law on Joint Stock Companies and related legislation. We propose measures to enhance the effectiveness of derivative suits; define the concepts of good faith and conflict of interest; establish duties of disclosure and confidentiality; extend duties under company law to controlling shareholders and de facto directors for conflict of interest transactions; protect directors against liability for business decisions adopted without a conflict of interest. We do not recommend the creation of significant administrative or criminal liability, nor expanded duties of directors for a company in financial distress. This document includes a separate Overview of the Report by Professor Black which provides an overview of Russia's progress in creating a modern company law.

The Overview and Chapters 1 and 3 were published separately as Legal Liability of Directors and Company Officials Part 1: Substantive Grounds for Liability (Report to the Russian Securities Agency), 2007 Columbia Business Law Review 614-799, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1010306. Chapters 8-9 and 11-13 were published separately as Legal Liability of Directors and Company Officials Part 2: Court Procedures, Indemnification and Insurance, and Administrative and Criminal Liability (Report to the Russian Securities Agency), 2008 Columbia Business Law Review (forthcoming), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1010307.

 

Authors

Fellow, Research Member
Northwestern University Law School and Kellogg School of Management Law School
Real name:
Hwa-Jin Kim
Real name:
Richard Nolan
Real name:
Linia Prava