The Importance of the Business Judgment Rule

43 Pages Posted: 21 Dec 2016 Last revised: 15 Mar 2018

See all articles by Bernard S. Sharfman

Bernard S. Sharfman

RealClearFoundation; Law & Economics Center at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School

Date Written: December 29, 2017

Abstract

Anyone who has had the opportunity to teach corporate law understands how difficult it is to provide a compelling explanation of why the business judgment rule (Rule) is so important. To provide a better explanation of why this is so, this Article takes the approach that the Aronson formulation of the Rule is not the proper starting place. Instead, this Article begins by starting with a close read of two cases that initiated the application of the Rule under Delaware law, the Chancery and Supreme Court opinions in Bodell v. General Gas & Elec. By taking this approach, the following insights into the Rule were discovered that may not have been so readily apparent if the starting point was Aronson.

First, without the Rule, the raw power of equity could conceivably require all challenged Board decisions to undergo an entire fairness review. The Rule is the tool used by a court to restrain itself from implementing such a review. This is the most important function of the Rule. Second, as a result of equity needing to be restrained, there is no room in the Rule formulation for fairness; fairness and fiduciary duties must be mutually exclusive. Third, there are three policy drivers that underlie the use of the Rule. Protecting the Board’s statutory authority to run the company without the fear of its members being held liable for honest mistakes of judgment; respect for the private ordering of corporate governance arrangements which almost always grants extensive authority to the Board to make decisions on behalf of the corporation; and the recognition by the courts that they are not business experts, making deference to Board authority a necessity. Fourth, the Rule is an abstention doctrine not just in terms of precluding duty of care claims, but also by requiring the courts to abstain from an entire fairness review if there is no evidence of a breach in fiduciary duties or taint surrounding a Board decision. Fifth, stockholder wealth maximization (SWM) is the legal obligation of the Board and the Rule serves to support that purpose. The requirement of SWM enters into corporate law through a Board’s fiduciary duties as applied under the Rule, not statutory law. In essence, SWM is an equitable concept.

Keywords: Business Judgment Rule, Corporate Law

JEL Classification: G30, K22

Suggested Citation

Sharfman, Bernard S., The Importance of the Business Judgment Rule (December 29, 2017). 14 New York University Journal of Law and Business 27 (Fall 2017), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2888052 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2888052

Law & Economics Center at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School ( email )

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