New Rules for Corporate Governance in the United States And Germany - A Model for New Zealand?

This paper surveys the poss1bilit1es for 1mplementmg new rules for corporate governance in New Zealand It focuses on the new rules issued in Germany (the German Code of Corporate Governance) and the United States (the Sarbanes-Oxley Act). The paper analyses both regulattons in order to find out which rules might be appltcable for New Zealand It 1s argued that New Zealand has to adopt a code of corporate governance in order to keep up wtth mternat1onal developments, otherwise tt nsks repelltng local investors and fatls attracting mternauonal investors. It 1s concluded that most 1mponantly New Zealand should adopt a pnnciples-based "comply-or-exp la111" approach rather than stnct rules. as it offers greater flex1b1ltty, which 1s pan1cularly 1mponant in the New Zealand context. The paper further concludes that many of the rules issued 111 Germany and the United States ould improve corporate governance 111 New Zealand and hence should be implemented However, some of the rules implemented in Germany and the United States either overshoot the mark or do not fit mto the ew Zealand context STATEMENT ON WORD LENGTH The text or this paper (excluding abstract, table or content, footnotes, bibliography and appendices) comprises approximate I y 13290 words.