Résultats 2 ressources
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South African company law is currently the object of comprehensive review. One o f the areas under scrutiny is that of corporate governance. Control over management is vital in the interests of the company itself, its shareholders and its creditors. Effective accountability should be balanced against the need to allow those who manage a certain measure of freedom and discretion in the exercise of their function. Company directors are subject to various duties. This thesis concentrates on their fiduciary obligation. It is suggested that this sui generis obligation is owed to the company as a separate entity. Interests of other groups may sometimes merit con sideration. Against the background o f a com parative investigation, a "corporate opportunity" is defined as any property or economic opportunity to which the com pany has a claim. South African law protects a company’s claim to an opportunity if it is in the company’s line of business and if the company has justifiably been relying upon the director(s) to acquire it or to assist in its acquisition for the company. The application of established fiduciary principles suffice to resolve corporate opportunity matters. Essentially the application o f these rules amount to a determination whether the director has complied with his fundamental duty to act in the company’s best interests. There seems to be no need for a separate doctrine of corporate opportunities.' A director should only be absolved from liability on account of the company’s inability to pursue an opportunity or its rejection by the company if there was no real conflict of interest. The appropriation of corporate opportunities should not be ratifiable, both because the ratification constitutes a fraud on the minority, and because the decision to ratify cannot be regarded as being in the interests of the company. The relationship between the appropriation of corporate opportunities, misuse of confidential information and competition is investigated. These aspects fre quently overlap, but should be distinguished because their bases, and accordingly their appropriate remedies, may differ. Effective control may benefit by a restatement of directors’ fiduciary duties in the Companies Act. To this end certain amendments to the Act are recommended.
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This dissertation is essentially a critical examination of the traditional and reformatory approaches of international bankruptcy law in Canada, England, and the United States. It highlights the shortcomings of the traditional law and the inherent limitations, contradictions, and inconsistencies of its applicable mechanism; the doctrines of private international law. The dissertation further argues that the reform schemes thus far advanced suffer from jurisdictional problems and fall short of ensuring optimal outcomes for international bankruptcy cases. Although some of these reform schemes achieve the desired equality of distribution, they unnecessarily entail a reduction in the value of distributable assets by carrying out piecemeal liquidations of local assets in order to satisfy some local claims. […] Cette thèse contient principalement une étude critique des conceptions traditionnelles et réformatrices de la loi sur la faillite internationale au Canada, en Angleterre et États-Unis. Elle éclaire les insuffisances de la loi traditionnelle ausi qua les limitations, contradictions et incohérences des mécanismes qui lui sont inhérents: les principes du droit international privé. Cette thèse soutient en outre que les plans de la reforme formulés jusque-là sont affectés par des problèmes d'organisation judiciaire et n'aboutissent pas à assurer les meilleurs résultats pour les procédures de faillite internationale. Quoique certains de ces projets de réforme réalisent l’égalité de distribution recherchée, ils entrainent une diminution inutile de la valeur des biens distribuables en provoquant des liquidations fragmentaires de biens situés sur place, en vue de satisfaire certaines réclamations locales. […]