We propose here to lay before English-speaking lawyers a general survey of the rights of shareholders in that form of société, which is described in continental law as société anonyme, compagnie anonyme or société par actions; and we shall endeavour to do it in a way which will be easily understood by “common” lawyers. We shall be considering in general continental rights, that is to say, those prevailing in the civil law countries not only of Western Europe but also of Latin America. We shall leave aside the Soviet countries, where the problems of shareholders' rights do not arise in the same way as under the so-called capitalist régimes; it may even be said that in fact there are no sociétés anonymes there with private capital and therefore these problems do not arise in practice. We shall also disregard the law of the United States of America, which lies within the common law framework and is more accessible to English lawyers.