The Cambridge Handbook of Shareholder Engagement and Voting

Abstract

Shareholder engagement and voting are considered pivotal features of corporala governance across nations. Relationships between shareholders and companies are broadly governed by corporate laws and corporate governance codes. The decision-making in a company is generally left to the wisdom of directors and managers of companies by shareholders. The problem relating to shareholder engagement and voting gets acknowledged when corporate governance standards are framed and, therefore, efforts are made to improve shareholder engagement and voting to ensure that shareholders can participate in decision-making and take informed decisions. Different means and methods for engagement and voting are provided by corporate laws and corporate governance codes to shareholders to protect their interests and add value to decision-making. Against this background, the Handbook re-examines shareholders' position and role and presents readers with a comparative view regarding the exercise of voting rights by different classes of shareholders through a variety of instruments. The Handbook employs a fully comparative approach for which the chapter authors were provided with guidelines containing a specific set of theoretical and practical questions. It seeks to provide a broader understanding of current issues and provides information about practices adopted for Improving shareholder engagement in companies in select jurisdictions covered in the book.

The Handbook is divided into four Parts. Part covers eight Asian jurisdictions, including China (Mainland), Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Part II addresses Australia and North America including the jurisdictions of Australia, Canada and the United States. Part III contains jurisdiction-specific studies on eight European economies, namely Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Each of the chapters in Parts J. II and III focuses only on one jurisdiction. Part IV