General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6284 / JDOC6284 |
| Course name: | Comparative Company Law |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | January |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credits / 6 credits |
1.2 Course description
This course examines critical and controversial topics in company law in a comparative context, in particular the laws of the UK, France, Germany and the United States. Each class will introduce students to definitions and concepts to be considered in detail, followed by presentations of relevant national laws to allow a comparison of how different legal systems deal with similar needs and problems. Against this background, the final part of each class will be focused on the comparative advantages and effectiveness of the regulations from the given jurisdictions.
The principal topics to be examined are:
- The corporation as a legal person and the limits of limited liability (including piercing/lifting the corporate veil).
- Types of business organisations
- Company formation
- Governing the corporation: management, the board of directors, shareholders meetings and shareholders’ resolutions
- Shareholders’ rights (including those of minorities) and their protection
- A company share capital
- The nature of equity claims and classes of shares
- Mergers, acquisitions and changes in corporate control
- Corporate groups
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Konrad Osajda | TBA | TBA | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Understand key issues and problems to be dealt with by corporate lawyers and the most frequently discussed doctrines of company law, for example piercing the corporate veil and handling business judgment rules.
CLO 2 Describe and explain the key elements of English, French, German and US corporate law as well as corporations domiciled in these jurisdictions.
CLO 3 Use information about the establishment of corporations in the UK, France, Germany and the US to advise clients dealing with such corporations as contractual partners or those considering new operations in any of these jurisdictions.
CLO 4 Apply and adapt knowledge and understanding of foreign advances in corporate law to new or uncertain problems met in practice, and be able to propose effective solutions with such an informed understanding.
CLO 5 Demonstrate confidence in dealing with international companies, doing business in different jurisdictions or researching issues arising about international commercial law.
2.2 LLM and JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
JD – https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Attendance | N/A | 5% | 1, 2 |
|
| Active participation during classes | TBC | 25% | 1, 2, 5 |
|
| Final paper | 15 Mar 2024 | 70% | 1, 2 |
|
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
The final paper must be on a relevant topic of each student’s choice, subject to approval by a professor. Potential topics will be discussed with the students.
Length: the papers should be 10-15 pages in length (Times New Roman 12-point font; 1,5 line spacing, default margin settings).
Papers should be submitted through Moodle
Performance in class
Active participation means reading ahead of the assigned texts and engaging during class discussions (answering the questions, presenting a student’s opinions etc.).
Attendance
Students may miss two classes of the course without notifying the course instructor.
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Seminar: | 3-hour seminars in an intensive mode in January semester |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
The detailed reading schedule will be provided to the registered students closer to the date of commencement of the course.
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Textbooks are available in the library |
| Core reading list: |
|
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/