Forum-Selection Bylaws Refracted Through an Agency Lens

Forum-selection bylaws are controversial when they are unilaterally adopted by directors of public companies acting pursuant to a generic bylaw power. The legitimation of such bylaws by the Delaware Court of Chancery in Boilermakers Local 154 Retirement Fund v. Chevron Corp. cleared the way for ever-more-aggressive uses of bylaw power in provisions mandating arbitration of internal-governance claims or imposing one-way fee shifting on shareholder plaintiffs. This Article uses the oblique perspective afforded by agency law to critique these bylaws and clarify the underlying issues they raise. In particular, agency doctrine includes precise articulations of concepts of consent and knowledge. The Article's analysis undermines the assumption that underpins the reasoning in Boilermakers: by investing in a corporation in which directors hold generic power to adopt, amend, or repeal bylaws, shareholders become parties to a "flexible contract" through which they impliedly consent to directors' later uses of their bylaw power (subject to ex-post judicial review under equitable doctrines). In the world of the "flexible contract," shareholders are deemed to know facts not in existence when they invest, which is inconsistent with the knowledge required by agency doctrine for effective consent by a principal. Even when considered alongside boilerplate consumer contracts, the "flexible contract" is a singular instance, in part because its subject matter is an ongoing governance relationship. The article proposes statutory revisions to the Delaware General Corporation Law to address these vulnerabilities by making forum-choice for shareholders more parallel to section 3114 (applicable to the assertion of personal jurisdiction over directors and officers) and section 102(b)(7), which enable but also regulates provisions that exculpate directors against monetary liability.