Common law and the origin of shareholder protection

Arbeitspapier

This paper examines the origins of investor protection under the common law by analysing the development of shareholder protection in Victorian Britain, the home of the common law. In this era, very little was codified, with corporate law simply suggesting a default template of rules. Ultimately, the matter of protection was one for the corporation and its shareholders. Using c. 500 articles of association and ownership records of publicly-traded Victorian corporations, we find that corporations afforded investors with just as much protection as is present in modern corporate law and that firms with better shareholder protection had more diffuse ownership.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: QUCEH Working Paper Series ; No. 2016-04

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill ; Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Voting; Proxy Contests; Corporate Governance ; Corporate Finance and Governance: Government Policy and Regulation ; Business and Securities Law ; Economic History: Financial Markets and Institutions: Europe: Pre-1913 ; Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: Europe: Pre-1913 ; Micro-Business History: Europe: Pre-1913
• Thema: law and finance ; ADRI ; shareholder protection ; corporate ownership ; common law

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Acheson, Graeme G. ; Campbell, Gareth ; Turner, John D.
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Queen's University Centre for Economic History (QUCEH)
• (wo): Belfast
• (wann): 2016

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/145311
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:41 MEZ