‘The reformulated duty of loyalty now found in section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 has generated debate about what is the best reading of the duty, the most fundamental aspect of which is whether this behavioural standard obliges a narrow focus on financial capital or a broader notion of well-being and inclusiveness amongst non-shareholder interests. This research argues that the law as a privileged and constitutive way of society-making can only be understood within a broader conceptual framework rather than the more traditional expository analysis of law. The context in which such an analysis takes place is that of the anti-collectivist, market-based political project of neoliberalsm. When viewed through this explanatory lens we see very clearly that English legal doctrine entrenches a relationship between managers and shareholders. In doing so the research shows that the extraction of private benefits of control by shareholders is not an inevitable occurrence, but a decades-long, human created, and contingent phenomena. While non-shareholder language is introduced into the duty, this precatory element is merely a potential source of legitimacy to the ideology of the company as a private, exclusively shareholder-oriented enterprise.’
Date: 19th February 2015, 12.30-1.30pm
Location: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR
Charge: Free, registration required
More information can be found here.
