Informal Unanimous Consent as a Decision-Making Method in the English Corporate Law

The purpose of the research. Everyday, millions of companies face the necessity of making corporate decisions being vital to their future. It is often complicated for the companies to comply with legal requirements, especially, those related to meetings of shareholders. However, timeliness, effectiveness, and aligned position of the governing bodies form the functioning basis of the decision-making system. The article considers one of the possible ways to make decisions in English companies, which was established by the common law enabling the company shareholders to approve corporate actions informally without holding the general meeting subject to unanimous consent. Results. As a result of the study the author concludes that informal unanimous consent as a decision-making method provides a greater procedural flexibility and is employed mainly in situations where the company (due to various circumstances) does not have the ability to perform all the formalities inherent in the decision-making process. In addition, the practice shows that informal unanimous consent accelerates the decision-making process (due to shorter timelines set by the law or corporate articles of association), as well as contributes to the effective business organization and the immediate adoption of important decisions. At the same time, it should be noted that there are certain limitations on the employment of informal unanimous consent and failure to comply with them entails the risk of invalidation of the decision made by the governing body.