Company Law - Semester A (Lecture notes, textbook readings/ summaries, and further readings / summaries)
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Course
Company Law (LAW6036)
Institution
Queen Mary, University Of London (QMUL)
Book
Company Law
In this 160 page document of notes, this Revision Bible (Semester A) includes the lecture notes, textbook reading summaries, and additional / recommended reading which gave me a high 1st class in Company Law.
Topics covered in Sem A Revision Bible:
1) Forms of Business Organisations;
2) Corp...
Company Law - Corporate Insolvency - Full lecture notes, textbook readings, further readings
Company Law - Corporate Contracting & Constitution - Full lecture notes, textbook readings, further readings
Company Law - Director's Duties & Corporate Management - Full lecture notes, textbook readings, further readings
All for this textbook (26)
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Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL)
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Company Law (LAW6036)
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Weeks 1-2: Forms of Business Organisations
Alan Dignam & John Lowry Chapter 1...................................................................................... 7
Brenda Hannigan Chapter 1..................................................................................................... 13
1 Lecture.....................................................................................................................................16
Why choose the corporate form?...........................................................................................16
2 Lecture: Forms of Business Organisation........................................................................... 16
Objectives.............................................................................................................................. 16
Non corporate forms of business...........................................................................................17
The company......................................................................................................................... 18
Companies limited by guarantee........................................................................................... 19
Unlimited companies............................................................................................................. 19
Companies limited by shares.................................................................................................19
Private companies................................................................................................................. 20
Public companies...................................................................................................................20
Advantages and disadvantages of corporate form................................................................ 21
Incorporation & the fundamental attribute of corporate personality....................................... 21
What is the goal of company law?......................................................................................... 21
Forming a company............................................................................................................... 22
Decisions to be made............................................................................................................ 23
Further Reading......................................................................................................................... 24
J Freedman, V Finch “The limited liability partnership: pick and mix or mix-up”....................24
Tutorial Questions..................................................................................................................... 25
Weeks 3-4: Corporate Personality
Lecture........................................................................................................................................27
Separate legal personality..................................................................................................... 27
What is it to incorporate................................................................................................... 27
Legal effect of incorporation: perpetual existence........................................................... 27
Legal effect of incorporation: separate legal personality..................................................27
Separate legal personality :Theory.................................................................................. 28
Separate legal personality Salomon v Salomon.............................................................. 28
Consequences of incorporation....................................................................................... 29
Separate legal personality: the implications.....................................................................29
Limited Liability Doctrine........................................................................................................31
Limited liability: costs and benefits...................................................................................31
Different types of creditors............................................................................................... 32
Piercing the corporate veil..................................................................................................... 33
Piercing the veil: definition............................................................................................... 33
Piercing the veil: corporate group.......................................................................................... 38
Corporate groups............................................................................................................. 38
Parent company liability in negligence for personal injury torts of subsidiaries..................... 39
,Limited Liability......................................................................................................................... 43
Saloman and limited liability.................................................................................................. 43
Lee v Lee’s Air Farming......................................................................................................... 44
Macaura v Northern Assurance............................................................................................. 45
Shareholder vs Member........................................................................................................ 46
Dispersed Shareholdings.......................................................................................................46
Close companies................................................................................................................... 46
Lifting the veil............................................................................................................................ 47
Introduction............................................................................................................................ 47
Statutory examples................................................................................................................ 48
Veil lifting by the courts.......................................................................................................... 49
Relevant case law..................................................................................................................52
Tortious Liability..................................................................................................................... 55
Parent company personal injury tortious liability....................................................................55
The Costs/benefits of limited liability......................................................................................58
Weeks 4-5: Corporate Contracting & Corporate Constitution
Tutorial Questions..................................................................................................................... 60
Lecture 5a: Corporate constitution..........................................................................................63
What will be covered..............................................................................................................63
What is a coy constitution...................................................................................................... 63
Articles of association............................................................................................................ 63
Function of articles.................................................................................................................64
Articles of Association............................................................................................................64
Function of articles.................................................................................................................65
Articles as a contract (Legal status).......................................................................................65
Articles as ctt: relationship between coy & members............................................................ 66
Enforcing the constitution: coy and members........................................................................66
Enforcing the constitution: Voting rights.................................................................................67
Articles as ctt: recognition of a voting right............................................................................ 68
Enforcing the constitution: coy & members........................................................................... 68
Summary of Enforcing the constitution Coy v members........................................................69
Enforcing the constitution: Who is bound by/can sue on the articles?...................................69
Enforcing the constitution: Members inter se.........................................................................70
Outsider rights....................................................................................................................... 70
Outsider rights....................................................................................................................... 71
Recap: Enforcing the constitution as a ctt............................................................................. 71
Lecture 5b: Altering the articles...............................................................................................71
Formal alteration....................................................................................................................71
Informal Alteration..................................................................................................................73
Informal Alteration : Re Duomatic (1969).............................................................................. 73
Altering the articles: limitations.............................................................................................. 74
, Restrictions on alteration: Benefit to coy............................................................................... 75
Restrictions on alteration: going further… not for benefit of coy............................................75
Lecture 5c: Shareholder agreements...................................................................................... 76
Shareholder agreements....................................................................................................... 76
Cases on the extent to which the agreements are enforceable.............................................77
Company as a party to shareholder agreement.................................................................... 77
Shareholder agreements....................................................................................................... 77
Shareholder agreements....................................................................................................... 78
Advantages of shareholder agreements................................................................................78
Lecture 6a: Corporate contracting: capacity of coy to enter into ctt................................... 79
Aims and Objective................................................................................................................79
Corporate Acts.......................................................................................................................79
How do companies Act.......................................................................................................... 80
Corporate capacity to enter into contracts............................................................................. 80
Objects clause (historically)................................................................................................... 80
Ultra Vires Doctrine................................................................................................................81
Problem with the ultra vires doctrine......................................................................................81
Ultra vires case law................................................................................................................81
The evolution of drafting objects clauses...............................................................................81
Reforming the Ultra Vires Doctrine Under CA 2006.............................................................. 82
Ultra vires and internal liability............................................................................................... 82
How does a company contract.............................................................................................. 82
Delegation of board’s power to ctt......................................................................................... 83
Execution of documents........................................................................................................ 83
Lecture 6b: Authority of agents to ctt......................................................................................84
Contracting through agents: a question of authority.............................................................. 84
Agent Authority...................................................................................................................... 84
3 Types of authority............................................................................................................... 85
Express actual authority........................................................................................................ 85
Implied actual authority..........................................................................................................85
Implied actual authority..........................................................................................................85
Ratification............................................................................................................................. 87
Validity of acts of directors..................................................................................................... 87
Apparent (or ostensible authority)..........................................................................................87
Lecture 6c: Statutory protection for outsiders under CA 2006............................................. 88
Indoor management rule........................................................................................................88
Statutory protection for outsiders: CA 2006...........................................................................89
Statutory protection for outsiders: CA 2006...........................................................................90
CA 2006 Section 41...............................................................................................................91
Shareholders’ redress under s.40..........................................................................................92
Summary: A contract is binding when…................................................................................92
, Dignam: Chapter 8.....................................................................................................................93
A Company’s constitution...................................................................................................... 93
Elements of Corporate Theory...............................................................................................93
Articles of Association............................................................................................................94
The contract of membership.................................................................................................. 96
A contract between the company and its members...............................................................96
A contract between members?.............................................................................................. 97
Who can sue?........................................................................................................................97
Outsider rights....................................................................................................................... 99
Shareholder agreements and statutory effects.................................................................... 100
Altering the constitution....................................................................................................... 103
Hannigan Chapter 5, pg 186-189, 17-73 to 17-80.................................................................. 104
Defining the constitution...................................................................................................... 104
Content of the articles..........................................................................................................106
Internal rules.................................................................................................................. 106
Objects clauses..............................................................................................................106
Amending the articles.......................................................................................................... 106
The statutory power to amend the articles.....................................................................106
Provision for entrenchment............................................................................................ 107
Common law limits to the power to amend the articles..................................................108
Tutorial questions.................................................................................................................... 114
Weeks 6-7: Corporate Governance
Lecture 4a: Corporate governance........................................................................................ 118
Aims and objectives............................................................................................................. 118
Corporate theory.................................................................................................................. 118
Empty concept, a legal construct......................................................................................... 119
Success of companies......................................................................................................... 119
Model 1: Contractual model................................................................................................. 119
Contractual model: agency problems............................................................................ 120
Contractual model..........................................................................................................123
Contractual Model: social responsibility of business ( a weakness i.e. that social
responsibility is poor)..................................................................................................... 123
Contractual Model: critiques.......................................................................................... 124
Stakeholder model...............................................................................................................124
Stakeholder Model: Team production problems.............................................................125
17) Stakeholder model in company law...............................................................................126
Stewardship theory.............................................................................................................. 126
Other theories in brief.......................................................................................................... 128
Concession theory/fiction theory....................................................................................128
Aggregate theory........................................................................................................... 128
Corporate realism.......................................................................................................... 129
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