The Evolution of Corporate Governance: A Comparative Study of the Cadbury Committee Report (1992), Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002), and the Indian Corporate Governance Framework

Corporate governance has emerged as a critical mechanism for ensuring accountability, transparency, and sustainable value creation in modern corporations, particularly in the wake of high-profile corporate failures that exposed weaknesses in board oversight, financial reporting, and internal controls. This study undertakes a comparative analysis of three landmark frameworks: the Cadbury Report (1992) of the United Kingdom, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) of the United States, and the contemporary Indian corporate governance regime anchored in the Companies Act, 2013 and SEBI regulations. The purpose is to examine the evolution of core governance principles, especially board independence, the role and composition of audit committees, and mechanisms of corporate accountability, across different institutional and regulatory contexts. Major findings indicate that while the Cadbury Report laid foundational voluntary principles centred on board structure and financial integrity, Sarbanes-Oxley introduced rigorous, mandatory internal-control and certification requirements, and the Indian framework has synthesised both approaches into a hybrid model that balances statutory mandates with market-oriented disclosure norms. The study concludes that corporate governance has evolved from principle-based, comply-or-explain systems toward more prescriptive, enforcement-oriented regimes, yet retains a common emphasis on independent oversight and accountability as universal safeguards against managerial opportunism.