One share, one vote im deutschen und schweizerischen Aktienrecht

In corporate law, capital and voting rights are generally proportional. At the same time, there is a practical need for flexibility in structuring voting rights, for example through the use of multiple voting shares. In Germany, multiple voting shares were abolished in 1998 by the KonTraG, as they were considered incompatible with the one share, one vote principle. With the EU Listing Act and the ZuFinG, multiple voting rights have been reintroduced.
This paper examines the significance of the one share one vote principle in German and Swiss corporate law. Taking into account the historical development as well as perspectives from law and economics, it analyses whether and in what form multiple voting rights should be reintroduced.