Plus Ça Change, Plus c’est la Même Chose — Preliminary Reflections on the United Kingdom Stewardship Code 2026

The Article offers preliminary reflections on the UK Stewardship Code 2026 as it relates to institutional investors’ compliance with it. It argues that, while this iteration of the Code provides some important clarifications regarding the purpose of investor stewardship and introduces substantive changes to the Code’s principles and reporting requirements, its overall contribution to the UK’sregulatory framework forinvestorstewardship may remain limited.There are still pressing issues left unaddressed, which can undermine the framework’s capacity to promote the adoption of practices consistent with the ethos of investor stewardship. Chief among these are several normative elements of investor stewardship’s purpose and the framework’s ability to ensure institutional investors uphold its principles, including those contained in the Code.