General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6336 / JDOC6336 |
| Course name: | Law and Corporate Finance in China |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | First |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credit / 6 credits |
1.2 Course description
In this course, students will study the laws governing corporate financial transactions, including the contribution of capital, distribution of dividends and the capital maintenance rule, stock redemption and repurchase, stock dividends and stock splits, stock option plans, mergers and acquisitions, corporate divisions, asset securitization, and the valuation of corporate stocks. While students will mainly learn about Chinese corporate law and regulatory rules on these transactions, this course will also take a comparative perspective and introduce similar rules in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Students will also explore how law affects the ownership structure of corporations, including dispersed ownership, concentrated ownership, corporate conglomerates, institutional ownership, and state ownership. Students will be introduced to the basic logics of finance, and study the valuation of financial assets, the capital structure irrelevance theory, the agency cost theory, and the transaction cost theory.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | James Zeng | jszeng@hku.hk | CCT 507 | By email |
1.4 Course Outline (for elective course)
| Please click the link here for the course outline (HKU Portal login required). |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Be familiar with and understand the logics of the relevant rules governing corporate finance activities and the legal issues and concerns that may give rise to disputes in mainland China.
CLO 2 Understand the dynamic interaction between law and the ownership structure of corporations.
CLO 3 Understand the difference in corporate financial structure in different jurisdictions and how that may affect the laws in different jurisdictions.
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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Presentation | 30% | 5 | 1, 2, 3 |
| Assignment | 70% | 1 | 1, 2, 3 |
| *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
To be advised by course convenor(s). See also Course Outline above.
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 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| 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
To be advised by course convenor(s).
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list: | TBA |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/