The Privy Council’s decision in Jardine Strategic Ltd v Oasis Investments II Master Fund Ltd [2025] UKPC 34 swept away a shareholder right to inspection of company documents that had stood for almost 140 years (the so-called ‘Shareholder Rule’). In this article, William Fitzalan Howard explains why the Rule’s abolition matters, how the courts reached this point across three cases going back to 2023, and why the decision may have substantial consequences for shareholder oversight and corporate governance. Challenging the view that the Rule was simply an historic aberration, the article makes the case that there were both principled and policy reasons why the Privy Council could have chosen modernisation over abolition. 

Read the full article here: The Shareholder Rule in modern English law – an aberration or an asset?: Journal of Corporate Law Studies: Vol 0, No 0 – Get Access