Introduction

The CA 2006 has been described as ‘an historic piece of legislation’, ¹ ‘long overdue’ and a ‘huge piece of legislation … undertaking a root-and-branch reform of the law’; an ‘archaeological approach to company law’; ‘gargantuan’; ‘this monster’; ‘incredibly long’; ² ‘rather like peeling back the layers of an onion’; ³ ‘lengthy and complex’; ⁴ an Act that is ‘pro-small business’; ⁵ ‘a model of how legislation should be introduced’. ⁶ It is by far the largest Act in the history of Parliament covering three volumes of legislation. According to Lord Hodgson, ‘company law reform may not set many parliamentary pulses racing – but it has a huge influence for good or ill on British industry and commerce’. ⁷