Right of inquiry in corporate law

Due to the major role that shareholders play in both private and public companies, legislators in various jurisdictions emphasize the need to protect their interests and rights through different legal instruments. In this regard, the right of inquiry is a unique right granted to shareholders enabling them to better protect their interests in the company. In essence, the right of inquiry allows shareholders of a company to assess whether the company is managed according to the principles of company law, whether there has been a misconduct in the management of the company (fiduciary duties of the members of the board are especially emphasized in this case) and whether the company is managed for the benefit of all the shareholders. Once the assessment of the management of the company is complete, the right of inquiry provides just and effective reliefs in order to remedy the situation in question if misconduct has been identified. Only two countries in the European Union are known to empower shareholders with such a right – the Netherlands and Lithuania. Due to this reason, a legal analysis of the right of inquiry is necessary to determine whether it positively influences the relations between the shareholders and members of the board of the company and if it can be used to address the issue of conflicts of interests between the aforementioned subjects. The article examines the right of inquiry in the Netherlands and Lithuania, discusses the differences of the procedures established by the laws of each country and analyses whether the right of inquiry is an essential right for the shareholders of the company that could be introduced in the laws of other jurisdictions.