Mapping Shareholders’ Duties

The purpose of this introductory chapter is to map these shareholders’ duties in order to provide an overview of current and prospective duties. This mapping shows great variety as well as variance. The traditional perception, that shareholders have no duties, is challenged on several fronts. First, the content and the context of the duties are manifold. Not only do the natures of the duties vary greatly, but there are multiple sources and multiple aims of the duties imposed. Second, it is not possible to draw a homogenous picture of a shareholder’s duties. The duties imposed on shareholders vary according to the type of company invested in, the type of shareholder and the type of business situation. The overview given in this chapter shows not only the complexity of shareholders’ duties in company law and capital market law in the EU, but also their interconnectedness.