An Insightful Study of the Oppression Remedy under South African and Canadian Corporate Law

A new perspective is provided on the South African company law through the comparative analysis of a shareholders’ remedy known as the Oppression Remedy under section 163 of the Companies Act 71 of 2008 and section 241 of the Canada Business Corporations Act. Despite the introduction of the new Companies Act 71 of 2008, the statute still remains unclear as to the rights, duties and powers of each individual within a company. In an aim to address this lack of clarity, this thesis takes a “back-to-basics” approach by discussing the fundamental principles of corporate personality and majority rule. This thesis provides a historical analysis of the English company law, its influence on the South African company law as well as the development of Canadian corporate law specifically through section 241. This study analyses the English, South African and Canadian statutes, cases and secondary materials