Bisschop, Bas Steins --- "Globalization: Selected Developments in Corporate Law" [2010] ELECD 294; in Faure, Michael; van der Walt, André (eds), "Globalization and Private Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Globalization and Private Law

Editor(s): Faure, Michael; van der Walt, André

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848447608

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Globalization: Selected Developments in Corporate Law

Author(s): Bisschop, Bas Steins

Number of pages: 44

Extract:

8. Globalization: selected developments
in corporate law
Bas Steins Bisschop*

1 INTRODUCTION
The present globalization is largely based on the past. This is particularly true
in the corporate world, where corporations are engaged in business on a global
scale whilst maintaining their national and traditional organizational form.
Concentrating on the organizational form of doing business it is remarkable to
note that, notwithstanding the general and systematic differences in national
jurisdictions, in respect of the corporate organization and governance of the
national corporations the commonalities are more manifest than the differ-
ences. In this chapter we will review these commonalities. The corporate orga-
nization may have appeared to be insufficient to face globalized crises such as
the current credit crunch, which has led from a US financial problem to a
global economic crisis. Nevertheless, there seems to be no reason to funda-
mentally amend or change this more or less common form of corporate orga-
nization in order to prevent the reoccurrence of similar crises. At the end of
this chapter we will cautiously explore whether the South African transition
from apartheid to a modern democracy presents lessons learned that can be of
use in resolving global crises.
In Section 2 we will discuss the historical foundation of the corporate orga-
nization which can be traced back to the Netherlands in 1602. In that year the
Dutch invented a corporate system in which the entrepreneurial activities were
separated from the financing of the enterprise. The provision of capital served
to finance ...