Introduction

Summary

When social circumstances change, adjustments to law often occur too. It might therefore be concluded from advancing ‘globalization’ that national legal systems would come ever closer together. Yet both sides of this causal relationship can be attacked. On the one hand, on the factual side, one conceivable objection is that even today differing natural, economic, cultural and technical circumstances from country to country stand in the way of a uniform society. On the other hand, as regards the consequences, the effect of, for instance, path dependencies and differences in political systems might prevent a convergence of law. Whether internationalization and globalization trends will lead to a fundamental shift in legal systems is therefore an open question.

As regards the protection of shareholders in joint stock companies, current developments suggest further investigating the extent of ‘convergence’ and ‘globalization’. For instance, the increasing cross-border movement of goods, services and capital and the use of the new media may also affect the shareholder's position and lead to a paradigm shift. The shareholder was even earlier often at the centre of the organizational structure of company law, but in the course of the twentieth century had to abandon that position in a number of legal systems, for one of more of a ‘passive observer’. Now, however, the new media and the internationalization of shareholder circles might mean expectations of an internationally similar re-evaluation of shareholders' rights to participation, protection and information.