Company law

One phrase on this list is not a legal term at all, and German lawyers use it constantly: der räuberische Aktionär, the predatory shareholder. No statute contains it. It names the small investor who buys a handful of shares, attends the general meeting and then brings an Anfechtungsklage against a resolution the company urgently needs entered in the register — a merger, for instance. The point of the action is not to win it but to be paid to withdraw it. The adjective is chosen with care: it belongs to der Räuber, who takes by threat, not to the thief who takes by stealth. The law’s answer carries a much drier name, das Freigabeverfahren, in which a court allows the entry despite the pending action. Remember that the adjective declines like any other: ein räuberischer Aktionär, die räuberischen Aktionäre.