Listed public companies have been at the heart of the corporate governance debate for the past decades. These companies tend to be economically important and receive much public attention. They raise complex governance challenges because of their broad and diverse shareholder base. The course will look at these major companies and the inherent agency conflicts between company insiders (management, controlling shareholders) and outside shareholders. From a legal perspective, this raises important issues under corporate law and securities regulation. The course will focus on securities regulation from both the economic and legal perspective. It is taught jointly by Jochen Bigus (a professor of accounting at the Business School) and Andreas Engert (a professor of corporate and securities law at the Department of Law).

The course combines a lecture (“Vorlesung”) with extensive classroom discussion (“Seminaristischer Unterricht”). Both of these parts will be taught in combined sessions even though they appear as two different offerings in the university’s course program. Also, the course will be concentrated in the weeks before the Christmas break. Therefore, you should plan to attend the full four-hour sessions even if the course plan contains two separate two-hour slots.

For students in law (Studiengang Rechtswissenschaft mit Ziel erste juristische Prüfung), the course can be taken to obtain credit for the modules “Fremdsprachenfachkompetenz” or “thematische Vertiefung”. Participation in the module “thematische Vertiefung” is limited and requires prior admission by Professor Engert; students are required to write and present a thesis paper (“Seminararbeit”, in German) in addition to participating in the course