European company law 

About: European company law is an academic journal published by Kluwer Law International BV. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Corporate law & Corporate governance. It has an ISSN identifier of 1572-4999. Over the lifetime, 273 publications have been published receiving 770 citations.

Regulating executive remuneration: international developments in the post-scandal era

Abstract: The problem of executive compensation was an underlying theme in international corporate scandals epitomized by Enron in the US, Parmalat and Vivendi in Europe, and One.Tel in Australia. There has been a wide array of regulatory responses to these scandals across jurisdictions, with varying degrees of attention paid to the issue of executive pay. This article examines recent international responses regarding executive pay through the lens of regulatory and governance strategies, based on the typology developed in Kraakman et al, The Anatomy of Corporate Law: A Comparative and Functional Approach (2004). Specific reforms and developments discussed in the article include: enhanced compensation disclosure; increased shareholder participation; and judicial review of board decisions about executive pay in cases such as the 2005 Disney decision in the US and the Mannesmann trial in Germany. These regulatory developments concerning executive pay are also interesting from the perspective of the convergence/persistence debate in comparative corporate governance. They show that major international scandals of this kind may generate new divergence in laws across jurisdictions.

The Regulation of Crowdfunding in the German Small Investor Protection Act: Content, Consequences, Critique, Suggestions

Abstract: The German Bundestag has adopted the Small Investor Protection Act on 23 April 2015, which will enter into force in the coming weeks. By this Act the German legislator establishes for the first time – among other things – a regulation of the German crowdfunding market. This article describes the content of the act as relevant to crowdfunding, identifies its probable consequences, and examines the most important rules with respect to their regulatory effects. The authors conclude that despite some modifications that have been made in the course of the legislative process there still is an urgent need of improvement regarding some provisions.

Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implications for Companies

Abstract: In June 2011, the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (GPs) drafted by Professor John Ruggie, the former UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations. The GPs are based on the ‘protect, respect and remedy’ framework proposed by Ruggie in 2008. In addition to offering a contextual analysis of he GPs and the Framework, this article critically examines the implications flowing from these for companies. In particular, it highlights the steps that companies are expected to take in order to fulfil their ‘responsibility to respect’ human rights and the challenges that they are likely to experience in doing so. It is argued that although GPs do not offer any robust or ready-made solutions to the current situation of corporate impunity for human rights violations, they offer some guidance to companies – especially those with good intentions – on how to conduct responsible business.