Reassessing the convergence thesis. An analysis of the 2018/2019 Corporate Governance Codes of the United Kingdom and Germany

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2019 in the subject Law - Civil / Private, Trade, Anti Trust Law, Business Law, grade: A, University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh Law School), course: Dissertation in Law, language: English, abstract: This paper presents a reassessing the convergence thesis. It takes the adoption of the new German Corporate Governance Code 2019 ("GCGC") as an opportunity to verify the thesis whether signs of convergence of contrasting corporate governance systems towards a single model are evident. For this purpose, a comparative analysis of the GCGC and the UK Corporate Governance Code 2018 ("UKCGC") is conducted. The UKCGC and the GCGC originate from competing corporate governance systems - the UK (enlightened) shareholder value model and the German stakeholder model - so the two Codes are ideally suited for a comparative analysis to verify the convergence thesis. It shows that the advancing globalization has generally contributed to a shift towards an Anglo-American corporate governance pattern in European countries. Convergence is also attributable to the harmonization of national laws through EU legislation. The comparative analysis of the UKCGC and the GCGC reveals broad signs of convergence with a large number of similar corporate governance mechanisms and provisions. Nevertheless, there are still region-specific differences in the Corporate Governance Codes that can be traced to the underlying corporate governance philosophy. However, board practice demonstrates that the structural differences between the two corporate governance systems are blurring. The comparative analysis also illustrates that the Corporate Governance Codes are converging from both sides.

Auteur

Thomas Böhm ist ein deutscher Jurist und Rechtsanwalt. Während seines Studiums der Rechtswissenschaften an der Universität Passau spezialisierte er sich auf die Rechtsgebiete Kapitalgesellschaftsrecht, Wertpapier- und Kapitalmarktrecht sowie Internationales Privat- und Verfahrensrecht. Nach erfolgreichem Abschluss des Rechtsreferendariats im Oberlandesgerichtsbezirk Nürnberg arbeitete er mehrere Jahre als Rechtsanwalt in einer internationalen Großkanzlei. Dort beriet er schwerpunktmäßig nationale und internationale Investoren, Fonds und Unternehmen im Rahmen von Immobilientransaktionen, Mergers & Acquisitions sowie im Bereich des gewerblichen Mietrechts. Thomas Böhm absolvierte ein Master of Laws (LL.M.) Studium an der University of Edinburgh im Schwerpunkt Corporate Law. Hierbei beschäftigte er sich eingehend mit dem Englischen Gesellschaftsrecht sowie dessen Ökonomie, Corporate Governance, Europäisches Arbeitsrecht sowie Internationales Handelsrecht. Derzeit arbeitet Thomas Böhm als Rechtsanwalt in einer international ausgerichteten Wirtschaftskanzlei im Bereich Gesellschaftsrecht / M&A. Thomas Böhm is a German corporate lawyer. During his law studies at the University of Passau, he specialized in the fields of corporate law, securities and capital markets law as well as international private and procedural law. After successfully completing his legal clerkship at the Higher Regional Court of Nuremberg, he worked for several years as a corporate lawyer in a major international law firm. His practice focused on advising national and international investors, funds and companies on real estate transactions, mergers & acquisitions and commercial tenancy law. Thomas Böhm graduated with a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in corporate law at the University of Edinburgh. He focused on UK company law, corporation law and economics, corporate governance, European labour law and international trade law. Currently Thomas Böhm works as a corporate lawyer in an internationally oriented commercial law firm in the field of corporate law / M&A.