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2015/2016  KAN-CJURV1073U  Interdisciplinary Corporate Law and Governance

English Title
Interdisciplinary Corporate Law and Governance

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Spring
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Commercial Law, MSc
Course coordinator
  • Georg Ringe - Law Department (LAW)
  • Steen Thomsen - Department of International Economics and Management (INT)
Main academic disciplines
  • Business Law
  • Finance
  • Globalization and international business
Last updated on 03-11-2015
Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors: Learning objectives are to
1. Enhance ability to apply legal and economic analysis to critical business and governance problems
2. Improve rhetorical, persuasive and other skills needed to argue successfully both in written and oral form
3. Increase experience in group work and discussions

At the end of the course the student should
• Demonstrate an understanding of the general principles and specific rules of corporate governance
• Intelligently discuss problems that may arise from corporate governance for business organisation
• Thoughtfully select and persuasively apply the law in order to resolve specific legal problems encountered by business
• Thoughtfully reflect on the impact of the law on the business community
Examination
Interdisciplinary Corporate Law and Governance:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Written sit-in exam
Individual or group exam Individual
Assignment type Written assignment
Duration 3 hours
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner
Exam period Spring and Summer
Aids allowed to bring to the exam Closed Book: no aids
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
If the number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination warrants that it may most appropriately be held as an oral examination, the programme office will inform the students that the make-up examination/re-take examination will be held as an oral examination instead.
The course will be examined by a three-hour written examination at the end of the course. Candidates will be required to answer essay and/or problem questions, which may cut across topics covered in the course. Candidates will be expected to show a detailed analytical knowledge of relevant materials. They will also need to display a good grasp of the theoretical and contextual readings, an ability to analyse, assess and synthesise the corporate governance theory with the legal material, an understanding of the strengths and limits of comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, and an ability to present a clear, concise and well-structured argument with some of their own insights.
Course content and structure

The course ‘Interdisciplinary Corporate Law and Governance’ is designed to constitute a platform for interdisciplinary study of major areas of corporate law and governance, both from a legal and an economics/management perspective. The course is a collaboration between the Law Department (Professor Georg Ringe) and the Center for Corporate Governance / Department of International Economics and Management (Professor Steen Thomsen).
 
The approach taken will be both functional and comparative, looking at a series of core problems with which any system of corporate governance must deal, and analysing, from a functional perspective, the solutions adopted by a number of legal systems. The main focus will be on legal systems of the UK, US, Germany and Denmark. The course seeks to situate these solutions in the underlying concepts and assumptions of the chosen systems, as these often provide an explanation for divergences. To this end, the course begins with a contextual overview of ‘systems’ of corporate governance, which material is then applied in the following seminars on more substantive topics. Such a comparative study is intended to enable students to see their own system of corporate governance in a new and more meaningful light, and to be able to form new views about its future development.
Teaching methods
The bulk of teaching provision will take the form of 11 two-hour lectures. For these lectures, students will be provided with a detailed reading list and, wherever possible, with course materials accessible through the intranet. Half of these lectures will be covered by a lawyer, haf by an economist.

Moreover, there will be 5 two-hour ‘seminar’ sessions, devoted to in-depth discussions of the material covered in the lectures. These seminars will be co-taught by both professors in order to enable interdisciplinary discussions and mutual learning. Students may be invited to give short presentations.
Expected literature

Students will be expected to read a range of survey articles and research papers.

 

The main course books are  
Kraakman et al, The Anatomy of Corporate Law (2nd edn OUP 2009)

Thomsen & Conyon, Corporate Governance - Mechanisms and Systems (2012)

 

Background reading includes

Easterbrook and Fischel, The Economic Structure of Corporate Law (Cambridge Mass., Harvard University Press 1991)
 
The complete reading list will appear in the semester plan.

 
Last updated on 03-11-2015