Task:The Financial Reporting Council published the UK Stewardship Code in 2012 to enhance the quality of engagement between investors and companies.

The Code, which was revised in 2020, advocates that effective stewardship is of benefit to companies, investors and the economy as a whole.

Write a critical literature review on the role of shareholder engagement and shareholder activism in the discharge of stewardship. Specifically your review should cover:

a) An evaluation of the shareholder activism literature to illustrate the extent that UK shareholders demonstrate stewardship in their investee corporates through shareholder engagement and through exercising their voting rights;

b) A critical analysis of the extent to which the Stewardship Code has improved the quality of shareholder engagement and ensured that investors act as responsible stewards.

To support your discussion, you are expected to make a reference to relevant theories, research studies and practical examples, where appropriate. Your literature review should rely mainly on high-quality sources (i.e. peer-reviewed academic journals).

Please use the literature appropriately and reference all sources fully. Given that this is a 3,000 word review, you are expected to use a minimum of 12 high-quality sources (including the suggested readings) for this coursework.

Maximum word count: 3,000 words excluding references.

Please avoid using appendices.

The assignment will be marked out of 100 but accounts for 50% of the module mark if you are enrolled on ACFI7019 Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility.

If you are enrolled on ACFI7017 Corporate Governance, this assignment accounts for 100% of the module marks.

LAW QUESTIONS

1. __________________ The Anglo-American system for settling disputes in court. It assumes the defendant is innocent until proven guilty.
2. __________________ A trial declared invalid for a variety of reasons such as the inability of a jury to reach a verdict, the death of a juror or counsel, or improper behavior by a juror or others involved in the trial.
3. __________________ The party in a lawsuit who appeals the court's decision to a higher court, arguing that the lower court made a mistake that prejudiced the appellant, who now deserves a reversal of the conviction (or a change in the sentence if that is the issue).
4. __________________ When a party in a lawsuit appeals the court's decision to a higher court, the party against whom this appeal is filed is called this.
5. __________________ The standard of proof in criminal cases.
6. __________________ An act by the legislature that condemns a person even though a judicial trial has not occurred. It is forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.
7. __________________ In a legal case, the duty of proving a disputed fact.
8. __________________ The aggregate of reported judicial decisions, which are legally binding court interpretations of written statutes and previous court decisions or rules made by courts in the absence of written statutes or other sources of law.
9. __________________ In contrast to criminal law, this type of law pertains to rules that are concerned with private rights. The wronged person seeks compensation rather than criminal punishment through state prosecution.
10. __________________ Reducing customs, unwritten laws, and rules to written statutes.