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In this chapter, we explore the legal framework of AGMs in seven Member States (Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) of shareholder decision-making rights. We find that, since only a small part of the decision-making rights is harmonized at the European level, there are numerous differences in shareholder rights among national laws. These decision-making rights are usually about the topics director (re-)elections, pay matters, share capital, amendments to articles of association, annual accounts, etc. To be able to conduct empirical research in the remaining chapters, we develop a categorization framework of 15 voting items.

In this chapter, we explore the legal framework of AGMs of listed companies in Europe, which forms the foundation for the empirical analyses in the subsequent chapters. We consider the decision-making rights, information rights (including forum rights) and procedural rights of shareholders at the European level. As this chapter shows, only a small part of the legal framework of AGMs is harmonized at the European level and this harmonization mostly consists of procedural rights. The recently adopted amended Shareholder Rights Directive will introduce more material European rights such as a say on pay.

This paper aims to analyze, using the bank-level data for India from 1991-2007, the effect of financial sector liberalization on the availability of credit to the private sector. The authors specifically ask whether public and private banks deployed resources freed up by reduced state preemption to increase credit to the private sector.

The authors use bank-level data for India from 1991-2007 and difference in difference estimates to analyze how state ownership of banks affected the allocation of credit to the private sector post liberalization, and additionally how the size of fiscal deficit affected this allocation.

The authors find that post liberalization, public banks continued to allocate a larger share of their assets to government securities, or held more cash, than private banks. Crucially, public banks allocated more resources to hold government securities when fiscal deficit was high. The authors rule out profit maximization, need to hold safer assets or the lack of demand for private credit as the possible reasons for the preference of the public banks to hold government securities. The authors suggest that moral suasion or “laziness” is consistent with this behavior.

Our findings suggest that in developing countries, with fewer alternative channels of financing, government ownership of banks, combined with high fiscal deficit, may limit the gains from financial liberalization.

Briefly outlines the history and background of the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act (ERISA) and the key bodies involved. Provides details of the Savings are Vital to Everyone’s Act including the purpose and the choices for individuals. Discusses the healthcare issues and potential conflicts between federal and state responsibilities. Concludes that ERISA is too vague and open to dispute and needs to be refined over the coming decades.

The purpose of this paper is to offers the authors’ perspective on a problem rarely considered by those making strategic decisions: conflicting laws at different levels of jurisdiction, specifically those related to stigmatized products.

The authors use as examples of product categories from marijuana to single-use plastic bags, describing the conflicting laws that add to costs for marketers and consumers.

The authors find that conflicting laws add to the uncertainty, legal expenses, and therefore, the cost of marketing a stigmatized product, whether stigmatized because of its impact on the environment, on health or on moral grounds.

The examples are not exhaustive, but their implications are significant: that as state legislatures are preempting local bans, Congress may preempt state laws.

This paper adds one more complexity to decision-making in the area of products to offer and/or merger/acquisition decisions that may bring company products that face conflicting laws.

This chapter focuses on the Swedish agriculture policy from the 1940s to 1960s. Which gender visions were explicitly and implicitly expressed in Swedish agricultural policy discourse during the formative period of the welfare state? In what way were farming women, men and families represented in debates in the Swedish Riksdag (the Parliament) in the parliamentary processes, in bills, proposals and protocols? The point of departure is the concept of family farm, its introduction and the different understandings and discussions it was met with.

The “traditional” family, one in which the mother and father both reside in the same home and the mother does not work outside of the home, now accounts for less than seven percent of all families in the United States (13, p.56). More than sixty percent of women of childbearing age in the United States are in the work force and forty percent of these women have children under three years of age (1, p.4). Approximately eighty percent of mothers will be in the work force in the year 2000 (8, p.3). Two‐thirds of new workers entering the work force between now and the year 2000 will be women (13, p.57).

The purpose of this paper is to explain a recently adopted Ordinance (the “Reform Act”) and amendments to the General Regulation of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) intended to improve the competitiveness of the French financial market and to harmonize the French regulatory definition of a public offering with the European Union definition under the Prospectus Directive.

The paper explains requirements of the European Union Prospectus Directive, related provisions of the French Reform Act, and certain clarifications provided by the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR); discusses the scope of the private placement exemption in France, including definitions of “qualified investors” and a “restricted group of investors”; explains the role of financial intermediaries and how their marketing activities must be structured to avoid losing the benefits of the private placement exemption; interprets loosely defined AMF policies on the resale of securities under the private placement exemption; details exemptions for investment service providers providing asset management for third parties and for “local” offerings; and explains limitations on the private placement exemption posed by the French public offering rules.

France has recently amended its public offering regime to further harmonize it with the Prospectus Directive and make the French financial market more attractive to foreign issuers. Additional amendments to the EU Prospectus Directive are expected, which will result in further changes to French private placement regulation.

The paper provides practical guidance from experienced corporate and securities lawyers.