Corporate Governance in Europe

This book explores the legal issues concerning groups of companies including regulation at national, international and global level. It offers a comparative discussion of the way in which issues common to the regulation of groups have been approached in the UK, in the European Union, in other member states of the union, in the United States and, where helpful, in other countries including the emergent economies of eastern European states. The author highlights the often tragic consequences of globalization by transnationals including polarization of income and environmental damage.

Global pressures present similar challenges to companies in different countries, but how those organizations deal with them depends on the social and institutional framework in which they develop and operate. In this book, leading academics explore and explain variations in governance systems, focusing in particular on European trends.

This book examines the legacy of economic and political aims and objectives formulated by the British government during, and immediately after the second world war. It examines contemporary patterns of regulation by the state, and reform in the industrial relations system as factors of these historically embedded influences. This book makes an important contribution to the history and theory of British post-war economics.

Economic restructuring in Eastern Europe has added a new universe of firms to the pool of cases for study of managerial effectiveness. Yet, in the ideologically charged atmosphere of post-communist transitions, analysis of the functioning of East European firms is sometimes clouded by preoccupation with privatization issues -- whether ownership is held by banks, a state or public agency, foreign investors, or inside or outside shareholders. This volume focuses on the performance of firms as a measure of the effectiveness of corporate governance, and only then attempts to draw conclusions about the relative advantages of different ownership structures.

Cheffins's book is the first to use economics to discuss in a systematic fashion company law issues in the UK.

The limited company is the dominant type of organisational structure for businesses operating in the UK it is the best available mechanism for raising finance and diversifying financial risk. This book identifies the company as a financing vehicle and explains how the law facilitates the raising of finance by providing the corporate form and methods of financing that match the changing needs of a business through its life. The approach sets this book apart from other legal texts and provides it with its distinctive orientation. The rules relating to share capital, debt finance and public offers of securities are clearly explained with emphasis throughout on their practical operation and on the interests that these requirements are intended to protect. Topical corporate finance issues, such as the ways in which companies can return value to their shareholders, are examined. The corporate governance implications of raising finance from external investors are considered. Key corporate governance issues such as the role of non-executive directors and institutional investors are analysed. For companies that have outside investors, market driven codes of best practice and Stock Exchange requirements can be just as important as the companies legislation and case law. Through the programme of harmonisation, European law now exerts a major influence. These different strands of law and regulation are woven together in the book and there is a timely discussion of areas where reform is necessary or desirable. This is the first book in the UK to deal with the technicalities of company law within a wider framework that recognises the importance of market forces and corporate governance and which seeks to explain to wider audience issues about corporate finance theory and practice that are familiar to financial economists. This is will enable students to develop a wider and more realistic understanding of the operation of company law than is provided by existing texts.