The Absence of Cross-Cultural Communication: SEC Mandatory Disclosure and Foreign Corporate Governance

U.S. corporate law scholars have recently recognized that, even in developed Western countries, there have been different solutions to the classic agency problem,1 arguably the primary focus of corporate law that governs the relationship between owners and managers in the large public corporations which are so important in the world econ- omy.2 Scholars have also acknowledged that these solutions, which fall under the general heading of corporate governance,3 do not arise solely from the evolution of some fundamental economic order or logic, but are shaped by social, political and, more generally, cultural forces, often unique to a particular country.