ABSTRACT

The fiduciary duty of good faith, now set forth in section 172 of the Companies Act 2006, expressly positions shareholders at the centre of the company’s interests, and assigns the priority entitlement to shareholders relative to all other stakeholders. The provision constitutes an attempted codification of the common law duty to act in good faith in the corporate interest, which remains immensely important in interpreting and applying the modern good faith requirement. However, this article submits that a reductive shareholder-determined articulation of the pre-2006 corporate interest seems practically misconceived, if not indeed in some sense conceptually impossible as a managerial behaviour obligation, and represents a departure from the common law doctrinal origins that is problematic for contemporary English company law and policy. Instead, the article provides a more functional and nuanced understanding of the salient cases, which focus typically on the company as a body corporate, and the particular free floating commercial objects of that entity.

摘要

现在，《 2006年公司法》第172条规定了诚信的信托义务，明确将股东置于公司利益的中心，并赋予股东相对于所有其他利益相关者的优先权。该规定构成了普通法义务的尝试性编纂，以便为公司利益真诚行事，这在解释和适用现代诚实信用要求方面仍然非常重要。但是，本文认为，以减少股东身份的方式对2006年前的公司利益进行表述似乎是错误的，即使在某种意义上在管理上的义务在某种意义上确实不是不可能的，并且它代表了有问题的普通法学说渊源的背离。适用于当代英国公司法律和政策。代替，