Great Debates in Company Law
Great debates have spurred the development of company law in essential ways in the past, and they continue to do so today. Holger Fleischer, director at the Institute, with Jens Koch of the University of Cologne and Klaus Ulrich Schmolke of the University of Mainz, gathered accounts of these debates into an edited volume of 21 insightful chapters that portrays the distinctiveness of company law, its relationship with tradition, and its outlook for the future.
The book’s preface asserts that these great debates in company law have not been peripheral to the field but rather have formed its centre of gravity. And while the debates have contributed substantially to the development of company law over the years, there is still much to be discovered about them in their own right. The focus on these debates promises new insights into company law and its traditions, doctrines, conceptual achievements, and discourse dynamics.
The present volume undertakes a cartographic inventory of controversies in company law and seeks to situate them within a broader context. An introductory chapter and the 21 contributions that follow invite the reader in for a richer understanding of all the various debates within company law. There’s no denying that the selection of topics did not follow purely objective criteria; the editors sought to achieve a healthy mix of current and classical controversies, including the doctrinal, theoretical, and political debates that characterize this body of law as well as perennial issues in securities law, GmbHs, partnerships, and non-profits. While some material is specific to the German context, the book’s subjects extend to other jurisdictions and originally international settings as well.
Image: © Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law / Marlena Staak