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LIRA@BC Law

Abstract

The current controversy in corporate law concerns whether firms can discourage litigation by shifting its cost to shareholders. But corporate law courts have long engaged in fee-shifting—from shareholder plaintiffs to the corporation—under the “corporate benefit” doctrine. This Article examines fee-shifting in share-holder litigation, arguing that current practices are unsound from the perspective of both doctrine and public policy. Unfortunately, the fee-shifting bylaws recently enacted in response to the problem of excessive shareholder litigation fare no better. The Article therefore offers a different approach to fee-shifting, articulating three specific reforms of the corporate benefit doctrine to quell the current crisis in shareholder litigation.

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File nameDate UploadedVisibilityFile size
01_griffith.pdf
8 Sep 2022
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Metadata

  • Subject
    • Business Organizations Law

    • Securities Law

  • Journal title
    • Boston College Law Review

  • Volume
    • 56

  • Issue
    • 1

  • Pagination
    • 1

  • Date submitted

    8 September 2022