Understanding the Company: Corporate Governance and Theory

by Barnali Choudhury (Editor), Martin Petrin (Editor)

What is the purpose of the company and its role in society? From their origin in medieval times to their modern incarnation as powerful transnational bodies, companies remain an important part of business and society at large. Drawing from a variety of perspectives, this book adopts a normative approach to understanding the modern company and provides insights into how companies should be conceptualized. It considers key topics such as the development of corporate theory, the rights and obligations of the company, and the means and ends of corporate governance. Written by leading experts of different jurisdictions, this book provides important international viewpoints on some of the most pressing corporate governance questions.

About the Author
Barnali Choudhury is a Senior Lecturer at University College London. She is the author of Public Services and International Trade Liberalization: Human Rights and Gender Implications (Cambridge, 2012) as well as over twenty articles and book chapters. She has delivered lectures internationally and her research has been cited by the UK House of Lords EU Select Committee, arbitral tribunals, and non-governmental organizations. Prior to joining academia she practiced corporate and international investment law.

Martin Petrin is a Senior Lecturer at University College London and the Deputy Director of its Centre for Commercial Law. He holds an SJD specializing in corporate law from the University of California, Los Angeles, a PhD from Universität St Gallen, Switzerland, and an LLM from Columbia University, New York. Martin has practiced law with a leading international business law firm and has been admitted to the Bar in New York and Switzerland. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Law and Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht, Germany. Petrin has published and presented widely on corporate governance topics.