Delaware has long been a leading voice in matters of corporate law. As the state of incorporation for 67.8% of Fortune 500 companies and 89% of IPO companies in 2019, according to the Delaware Secretary of State, and home to the specialized Court of Chancery, Delaware has developed a considerable corpus of statutory and decisional law that courts in many other states—including California—regularly look toward.

Over many years, California has likewise placed its imprimatur on corporate law, both as to the law governing its domestic corporations, and through statutory requirements applicable to foreign corporations based in California. The year 2020 has seen a number of decisions in both California and Delaware exploring the fault lines between the two states' approaches playing out across multiple areas of corporate law.