Improving Corporate Governance in Companies with a Dual Board Structure - Lessons from Germany and China

Scientific Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Law - Comparative Legal Systems, Comparative Law, grade: 89/100 (High Distinction), University of New South Wales, Sydney, course: Chinese Corporate and Securities Law, language: English, abstract: Effective monitoring structure within a company is one major concern of corporate govern-ance. Both China and Germany adopt a two-tier board structure and have experienced similar considerable difficulties regarding the efficacy of the supervisory boards. This paper focuses on the different ways in which both countries addressed this problem. It is argued that there has been no need for China to adopt a parallel system of independent directors. Rather, China should have followed the German way and professionalized its supervisory boards.