Editing Board of directors (section)

=====1. Transactions with the company=====

By definition, where a director enters into a transaction with a company, there is a conflict between the director's interest (to enrich themselves with the transaction) and their duty to the company (to ensure that the company gets as much as it can out of the transaction). In some places, this rule is so strictly enforced that, even where the [[conflict of interest]] or conflict of duty is purely hypothetical, the directors can be forced to disgorge all personal gains arising from it. In ''Aberdeen Ry v Blaikie'' (1854) 1 Macq HL 461 [[Robert Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth|Lord Cranworth]] stated in his judgment that:

:"A corporate body can only act by agents, and it is, of course, the duty of those agents so to act as best to promote the interests of the corporation whose affairs they are conducting. Such agents have duties to discharge of a fiduciary nature towards their principal. And it is a rule of universal application that no one, having such duties to discharge, shall be allowed to enter into engagements in which he has, ''or can have'', a personal interest conflicting ''or which possibly may conflict'', with the interests of those whom he is bound to protect... So strictly is this principle adhered to that no question is allowed to be raised as to the fairness or unfairness of the contract entered into..." (''emphasis'' added)

However, in many jurisdictions the members of the company are permitted to ratify transactions which would otherwise fall foul of this principle. It is also largely accepted in most jurisdictions that this principle can be overridden in the company's constitution.

In many countries, there is also a statutory duty to declare interests in relation to any transactions, and the director can be fined for failing to make disclosure.{{efn|In the United Kingdom, see section 317 of the Companies Act 1985.}}