Types of shares and their legal regime in foreign legislation

Shares in foreign law differ in the variability of the rights they secure. In the global corporate practice, exceptions to the “one share – one vote†rule are possible for ordinary shares, models of disproportionate granting of rights on shares are possible as well. Various world legal systems have developed their own approaches to the construction of the legal regime of shares. The regime of shares is different in the law of the states of the Anglo-Saxon system and in the continental law of Europe, as well as other countries that have taken any one of those systems of law as a basis. Foreign legal systems are characterized by liberal and dispositive regulation of the legal regime of shares, especially the differentiation of rights by shares.In comparison with Russian legislation, shares in foreign legal systems are characterized by greater variability in the content and scope of the rights assigned, as well as a greater degree of dispositivity in choosing which shares, with what volume of rights, a joint-stock company can issue. For investors, that aspect has a positive value and provides flexibility of participation and legal regulation of joint-stock legal relations in corporations.Various types of preferred shares in foreign legal systems (fixed-dividend shares, protected shares, redemption shares, savings shares) provide shareholders with more guarantees for receiving dividend income than in Russian corporate law.