Citation
Kirkbride, J. (2009), "Editorial", International Journal of Law and Management, Vol. 51 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlma.2009.01051caa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Law and Management, Volume 51, Issue 3.
It is widely acknowledged that legal reform has become one of the most important institutional changes in China in recent years, and within China, the changing legal institutions have begun to play an increasingly important role in governing economic activities. In the context of corporate law, a comprehensive company law reform programme was introduced and incorporated in the 2005 Company Law of the Peoples Republic of China. As editors of this journal, we decided that we would welcome a review and discussion of the corporate law reform programme in China: it is clear that there exists an intense and growing interest in China's corporate law reform but there is a paucity of domestic Chinese scholarship and reflection on the actual operation of the emerging legal system. To encourage that reflection, we were grateful to the School of Law of Shanghai University agreeing to host a symposium on corporate law and corporate governance reform. The Symposium took place in November 2008 with over 70 academics attending to consider research studies and findings over a wide range of topics from foreign direct investment and governance of listed markets through CEO' and independent directors to economic globalisation and China's CSR. We hope that readers will find these reflections of interest. Inevitably, the studies contain a comparative approach drawing heavily upon Anglo-US influences on the direction of corporate law reform in China but even extending to include a Chinese perspective on US corporate governance and market failures.
Finally, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to our hosts, the School of Law at Shanghai University, and to the scholars who contributed to both the Symposium and to this special issue of the journal.
James Kirkbride