Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T22:56:06.461Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - English Company Law and Climate Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2021

Lisa Benjamin
Affiliation:
Lewis & Clark College, Portland
Get access

Summary

This chapter provides a deep dive into UK company law, assessing the common law before the changes to the Companies Act enacted in 2006. It finds that prior to 2006, the judiciary provided directors with a significant amount of discretion to make even profit-sacrificing actions if they benefited the company as a whole, widely reflecting the entity theory of companies. Corporate governance reviews, from the Cadbury Report onwards, did not reflect this common law approach. A detailed examination of the work of the Company Law Review Steering Group illustrates that the changes codified in s172 of the Companies Act 2006 actually entrenched a shareholder primacy approach to company law that previously was not dominant in English common law. This development could have negative impacts for the climate, although the relationship between s172 and the prior common law interpretation of directors’ duties remains unclear. Post-2006 cases are also assessed, and an overview of where climate liability could arise for directors under the 2006 Act is provided.

Type
Chapter
Information
Companies and Climate Change
Theory and Law in the United Kingdom
, pp. 46 - 77
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×