Shareholders Agreement in Private International Law of Russia

The graduate paper is aimed at considering transboundary shareholders’ agreements that is agreements with international elements. The main objectives are: (a) an analysis of a shareholders’ agreement definition; (b) a definition of a shareholders’ agreement legal nature; (c) studying the institute in Russian and foreign practice; (d) an analysis of the substance of shareholders’ agreement; (e) studying of structure of the institute; (f) studying of basic rights and duties of shareholders’ agreements; (g) an analysis of methods of surety for fulfillment of obligations; (h) an analysis of perspectives of the institute. The main conclusions: (a) a sharesholders’ agreement represents a civil contract which subject is legal relationships concerning implementation of shareholders rights; (b) the Russian legislation does not contain the direct answer to a question whether the sharesholders’ agreements concluded by Russian joint-stocks companies be concluded under foreign law. However Russian court practice negatively regards to this opportunity owing to Russian shareholders often build multilevel holdings with a main company abroad; (c) the most popular for Russian shareholders to choosing the applicable law for regulation is the English law. Mainly it is connected with the fact that the agreements under the English law may contain almost any question concerning activity of a company; (d) the conclusion of shareholders’ agreement gradually becomes more popular for Russian joint-stocks companies owing to there are some grounds to suppose that the institute will develop forming the new court practice. Academic Supervisor: Dmitry Maksimov, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Department of International Public and Private Law National Research University “The Higher School of Economics”.