Scroll to Section:
Researcher | Institution | Original publication | Reading recommendations | Beyond | CitationThe ‘independent director’ was introduced as a corporate governance tool in the United States in the 1970s and quickly spread to the United Kingdom and from there to Continental Europe and Asian economies. The research presented in this video examines whether this legal transplant works in economies that have different shareholder structures and thus different agency conflicts than the US, and asks why these countries adopted it. Using comparative analysis, HARALD BAUM explains, the researchers discovered that – depending on the context – the independent director can be an almost meaningless tool. They also found that countries were impelled to introduce the concept due to a competition for funds from international investors and organizations that work on American principles of corporate governance. The research results suggest that a greater variety of regulatory tools might be fruitful for the international market.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10411
Institution
Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
Different countries, different cultures – and usually also a different basis for legal systems. The development of the European single market, the global integration of multinational business and commercial companies as well as the increasing internationalisation of our daily lives require that areas of private and commercial law provide solutions that cannot only be derived from the legal systems of individual countries. Academics at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg apply analysis of the differences and similarities between different legal systems to develop a foundation for an international understanding of law and its application to cross-border circumstances. This also includes addressing the methodological issues of comparative law and unification of law. The central research tool of the Institute is its library, which contains one of the world’s most extensive collections of literature on civil law. ( Source )
Show more
Original publication
The Rise of the Independent Director: A Historical and Comparative Perspective
Max Planck Institute for Corporate and International Private Law Research Paper Series
Published in 2016
Independent Directors in Asia: A Historical, Contextual and Comparative Approach
Cambridge University Press (In Press)
Published in 2017
Reading recommendations
Corporate Governance and Directors' Independence
Published in 2011The Rise of Independent Directors in the United States, 1950-2005: Of Shareholder Value and Stock Market Prices
Stanford Law Review
Published in 2007
Three Concepts of the Independent Director
Delaware Journal of Corporate Law
Published in 2007
Unabhängige Aufsichtsratsmitglieder
Zeitschrift für das gesamte Handels- und Wirtschaftsrecht
Published in 2011
Independence and Independent Company Directors
Journal of Corporate Law Studies
Published in 2013
The Trouble With Boards
Perspectives on Corporate Governance
Published in 2010
The Political Economy of Board Independence
North Carolina Law Review
Published in 2014
Beyond
A Ground-breaking Scientific Revolution
An Alarming Challenge for Society
If I Had a Second Life
A Personal Reading Recommendation