A significant implication arising out of an increasingly influential view that fiduciary duties are terms expressed or implied into voluntary undertakings is that all express or implied fiduciary duties can be excluded. This article critiques this implication by advancing the argument that this implication is doctrinally unjustified and normatively questionable through an analysis of the circumstances in which directors’ fiduciary duties have been contracted out under English law.
ButlerHNRibsteinLE (1990) Opting out of fiduciary duties: a response to the anti-contractarians. Washington Law Review65: 1.
11.
ChanderA (2003) Minorities, shareholder and otherwise. Yale Law Journal113: 119.
12.
CheffinsB (1991) Law and economics and morality: Contracting out of corporate law fiduciary duties. Canadian Business Law Journal19: 28.
13.
CoffeeJCJr (1988) No exit? Opting out, the contractual theory of the corporation, and the special case of remedies. Brooklyn Law Review53: 919.
14.
CoffeeJCJr (1989) The mandatory/enabling balance in corporate law: an essay on the judicial role. Columbia Law Review89: 1618.
15.
Company Law Amendment Committee (1925–26) Report. Cmd 2567.
16.
ConaglenM (2011) Fiduciary Loyalty: Protecting the Due Performance of Non-Fiduciary Duties. 1st ed. Oxford: Hart.
17.
ConaglenM (2013) Fiduciary duties and voluntary undertakings. Journal of Equity7: 105.
18.
CranstonR (1992) Limiting directors’ liability: ratification, exemption and indemnification. Journal of Business Law: 197.
19.
DaviesPLWorthingtonS (2012) Principles of Modern Company Law. 9th edn. London: Sweet & Maxwell.
20.
DeMottDA (1988) Beyond metaphor: an analysis of fiduciary obligation. Duke Law Journal37: 879–924.
21.
DugganA (2010) Contracts, fiduciaries and the primacy of the deal. In: BantEHardingM (eds) Exploring Private Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.275–297.
22.
EasterbrookFHFischelDR (1993) Contract and fiduciary duty. Journal of Law and Economics36: 425–446.
23.
EdelmanJ (2010a) When do fiduciary duties arise?Law Quarterly Review126: 302.
24.
EdelmanJ (2010b) Four fiduciary puzzles. In BantEHardingM (eds) Exploring Private Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.298–318.
25.
EdelmanJ (2013) The importance of the fiduciary undertaking. Journal of Equity7: 128.
26.
EisenbergMA (1995) The limits of cognition and the limits of contract. Stanford Law Review47: 211.
27.
FinnPD (1989a) Contract and the fiduciary principle. University of New South Wales Law Journal12: 76.
28.
FinnPD (1989b) The fiduciary principle. In: YoudanTG (ed) Equity, Fiduciaries and Trusts. Toronto: Carswell, pp.1–56.
29.
FitzGibbonS (1999) Fiduciary relationships are not contracts. Marquette Law Review82: 303.
30.
FlanniganR (2014) Shareholder fiduciary accountability. Journal of Business Law1: 1.
31.
FrankelT (1995) Fiduciary duties as default rules. Oregon Law Review74: 1209.
32.
FrankelT (2011) Fiduciary Law. New York: Oxford University Press.
33.
HanniganB (2000) Limitations on a shareholder’s right to vote: effective ratification revisited. Journal of Business Law: 493.
34.
HanniganB (2009) Company Law. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
35.
HirtHC (2004) Ratification of breaches of directors’ duties: the implications of the reform proposal regarding the availability of derivative actions. Company Lawyer24: 197.
36.
GregoryR (1982) The scope of the Companies Act 1948, section 205. Law Quarterly Review98: 413
37.
GregoryD (2009) Grand theory. In: GregoryD. (eds) The Dictionary of Human Geography. 5th ed. London: Wiley.
38.
KohP (2005) Directors’ fiduciary duties: unthreading the joints of shareholder ratification. Journal of Corporate Law Studies5: 363.
39.
La PortaR Lopez-de-SilanesFShleiferA. (2000) Investor protection and corporate governance. Journal of Financial Economics58: 3.
40.
La PortaR Lopez-de-SilanesFShleiferA (2008) The economic consequences of legal origins. Journal of Economic Literature46: 285.
41.
LangbeinJH (2004) Mandatory rules in the law of trusts. Northwestern University Law Review98: 1105.
42.
LeslieMB (2005) Trusting trustees: fiduciary duties and the limits of default rules. Georgetown Law Journal94: 67.
43.
McPhersonBH (1977) Duties of directors and the powers of shareholders. Australian Law Journal51: 460.
44.
MillsCW (1959) The Sociological Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
45.
MorseGWorthingtonS (eds) (2007) Palmer’s Company Law: Annotated Guide to the Companies Act 2006. London: Sweet & Maxwell.
46.
MortimoreS (ed) (2009) Company Directors: Duties, Liabilities, and Remedies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
47.
NolanRConaglenM (2010) Good faith: what does it mean for fiduciaries, and what does it tell us about them. In: BantEHardingM (eds) Exploring Private Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.319–342.
48.
ParkinsonJ (1981) The modification of directors’ duties. Journal of Business Law: 335.
49.
PartridgeJRC (1981) Ratification and the release of directors from personal liability. Cambridge Law Journal46(1): 122.
50.
PayneJ (1999) A re-examination of ratification. Cambridge Law Journal58(3): 604.
51.
RiderB (1978) Amiable lunatics and the rule in Foss v Harbottle. Cambridge Law Journal37(2): 270.
52.
RileyCA (2014) Derivative claims and ratification: time to ditch some baggage. Legal Studies (34): 582.
