Regulating Fiduciary Duties of Directors Towards Company Property in England and Saudi Arabia: a Comparative Analysis

This thesis investigates the regulation of fiduciary duties of directors towards company property in England and Saudi Arabia. The analysis concentrates on the statutory law of both countries as the main legal instrument to prevent exploitation of company property by company directors. The study follows a functionalist approach to compare the legal systems of England and Saudi Arabia, taking into account the socio-cultural ramifications for the application of law to regulate the fiduciary duties of company directors towards company property. The study argues that despite belonging to different law families and having developed in different socio-cultural environments, the legal systems of both countries face a similar issue of effective prevention of company property exploitation by company directors. Further, it is noted that the statutory provisions aimed at regulating the fiduciary duties of company directors towards company property are not completely effective. The main contribution to knowledge provided by the thesis consists in making suggestions for statutory amendments in England and Saudi Arabia for a more effective regulation of directors’ fiduciary duties towards company property. A further original contribution of the study is in exploring the different features in each legal system that can be effectively transferred and applied to the other system in order to improve the regulation of directors’ fiduciary duties towards company property.