Martin Gelter

An expert in comparative corporate law and governance, Professor Martin Gelter joined Fordham Law School in 2009. He teaches Corporations, Partnership & LLC law, Comparative Corporate Law, and Accounting for Lawyers. His research explores corporate governance in its comparative and international dimensions, focusing on the United States and Europe. He is also interested in securities law, law and economics, law and finance, law and accounting, empirical legal studies, and comparative private law. His research has appeared in English, German, and French and has been translated into several other languages. Before joining Fordham in 2009, Martin was an assistant professor at Vienna University of Economics, a Considine Fellow in Law and Economics at Harvard Law School, and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Bologna. He has been a Visiting Professor at University Paris-II and National Taiwan University. He has also been an Academic Visitor at Oxford, a Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, and a Senior Fellow in the Program for the Foundations of Law and Finance at Goethe University of Frankfurt. Martin is a research member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI).

Previous experience includes:

• Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow, European University Institute, Florence
• Senior Fellow in the Program for the Foundations of Law and Finance at Goethe University of Frankfurt
• Visiting Professor, National Taiwan University College of Law
• Visiting Professor, Université Paris-II Panthéon-Assas
• Assistant Professor, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Civil Law and Business Law
• Terence M. Considine Fellow and John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics, John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business, Harvard Law School
• Visiting Fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies, Department of Law “Antonio Cicù” and Department of Economics, University of Bologna

Education

• Columbia University, M.A., 2018

• Harvard Law School, SJD, 2009, LLM, 2003 (waived for SJD fellowship)

• WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Dr. rer.soc.oec., 2003, Mag.rer.soc.oec., 1998

• University of Vienna, Dr. iur., 2001, Mag. iur., 1998

Selected Publications

• Minimum Capital and Cross-Border Firm Formation in Europe, 8 L. Fin. & Acct. 165-209 (2025), [working paper download].
• Elective Corporate Governance: Does Board Choice Matter? [with Mathias M. Siems], 78 Int’l Rev. L. & Econ. 106190 (2024).
• Preliminary Procedures in Shareholder Derivative Litigation: A Beneficial Legal Transplant? 19 Company & Fin. L. Rev. 3-39 (2022) [working paper download].
• Letting Companies Choose between Board Models: An Empirical Analysis of Country Variations [with Mathias M. Siems], 43 Pa. J. Int’l L. 137-186 (2021) [working paper download].
• COMPARATIVE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE (Research Handbooks in Comparative Law Series, edited with Afra Afsharipour; Edward Elgar 2021).
• COVID-19 and Comparative Corporate Governance (with Julia M. Puaschunder), 46 J. CORP. L. 557-627 (2021) [working paper download].
• Addressing the Auditor Independence Puzzle: Regulatory Models and Proposal for Reform (with Aurelio Gurrea-Martínez), 53 Vand. J. Transnt’l L. 787-827 (2020).
• Opportunity Makes a Thief: Corporate Opportunities as Legal Transplant and Convergence in Corporate Law [with Geneviève Helleringer], 15 BERKELEY BUS. L.J. 92-183 (2018).
• GLOBAL SECURITIES LITIGATION AND ENFORCEMENT (edited with Pierre-Henri Conac, Cambridge University Press 2018).
• Lift not the Painted Veil! To Whom are Directors’ Duties Really Owed? (with Geneviève Helleringer), 2015 U. ILL. L. REV. 1069-1118 .
• Whose Trojan Horse? The Dynamics of Resistance against IFRS (with Zehra G. Kavame), 36 U. PA. J. INT’L L. 89-190 (2014).
• Citations to Foreign Courts - Illegitimate and Superfluous, or Unavoidable? Evidence from Europe, 62 AM. J. COMP. L. 35-85 (2014) (with Mathias M. Siems) [working paper download].
• The Pension System and the Rise of Shareholder Primacy, 43 SETON HALL L. REV. 909-970 (2013).
• The Dark Side of Shareholder Influence: The Connection between Managerial Autonomy and Stakeholder Orientation in Comparative Corporate Governance, 50 HARV. INT’L L. J. 129-194 (2009).
• The Transatlantic Divergence in Legal Thought: American Law and Economics vs. German Doctrinalism, 31 HASTINGS INT’L & COMP. L. REV. 295-360 (2008) (with K. Grechenig).
• The Subordination of Shareholder Loans in Bankruptcy, 26 INT’L REV. L. & ECON. 478-502 (2006) [working paper download].

View Curriculum Vitae for a full list of publications.

• European Corporate Governance Institute (nominated as a research associate in 2006)
• American Law and Economics Association
• European Association for Law and Economics