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...
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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