The complexity of derivative actions in Asia: An inconvenient truth

• Main Author: PUCHNIAK, Dan W.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2012
• Subjects: Asian Studies; Comparative and Foreign Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/3956; https://search.library.smu.edu.sg/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99577088502601&context=L&vid=65SMU_INST:SMU_NUI&lang=en&search_scope=Everything&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,The%20Derivative%20Action%20in%20Asia:%20A%20Comparative%20and%20Functional%20Approach&offset=0
• Institution: Singapore Management University

As comparative corporate law scholars, we did what we were supposed to do. We contacted experts on the derivative action in seven leading Asian economies (i.e., China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan). These experts researched and wrote chapters on the derivative action in their respective jurisdictions. We brought these experts together, spent two days discussing their jurisdiction-specific chapters and then took a step back to find a theory to make sense out of the derivative action in Asia. To our chagrin, we came up empty. No grand theory after all. Rest assured our failure to find a grand theory was not due to a lack of effort or an absence of grand theories. First, we tried to explain the dearth of derivative actions in several of our leading Asian jurisdictions as being the direct result of Asia’s infamously strong ‘cultural aversion to litigation’. Unfortunately, the facts in this book do not fit the theory of the reluctant Asian litigant. To the contrary, they turn the theory on its head.