Catching Up with the Crowd - But Going Where? The New Codes on Corporate Governance in the Nordic Countries

Abstract

Since the Cadbury Report of 1992 several Member States of the European Union have provided national codes on corporate governance or best practice, and the European Commission in its Company Law Action Plan has declared its intention to see these coordinated and converge. The five Nordic countries that are all members of either EU or EEA have passed such codes relatively late. Based on these Nordic Codes, the article takes a critical look at what this venture into European soft law is about and points out the differences in the Nordic approach to this kind of company law regulation that are visible in the Codes and may be at odds with the intended European convergence.

Keywords: Nordic company law; corporate governance, EU law

JEL Classification: K22