Definition
A general meeting is a formally convened assembly of all members of an organization — typically the shareholders of a corporation, members of an association, or creditors in an insolvency proceeding — called to conduct collective business that affects the organization as a whole. The term is used in contrast to meetings of a subset of members (such as a board of directors, a committee, or a class of shareholders), and it carries legal weight because decisions made at a properly convened general meeting are binding on the organization and, in many contexts, on absent members as well.
Two principal uses appear across corporate and organizational law:
1. CORPORATE CONTEXT: A general meeting of shareholders (or stockholders) is the mechanism by which the ownership of a corporation exercises its reserved powers — electing directors, approving fundamental transactions, ratifying or rejecting extraordinary actions, and amending governing documents. This is distinct from board action; the board manages the corporation's day-to-day affairs, but certain decisions require action by the shareholder body as a whole.
2. INSOLVENCY CONTEXT: A general meeting of creditors is convened in bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings to allow all creditors to participate collectively in decisions affecting the administration of the estate — appointing trustees, approving plans of arrangement, or receiving reports from the administrator.
Both uses share a common structural feature: notice, quorum, and voting rules govern whether the meeting is valid and whether its resolutions are legally effective.
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Common Confusion
GENERAL MEETING vs. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM): A general meeting is the broader category. An annual general meeting is a specific type — the regularly scheduled yearly assembly required by statute or governing documents. "General meeting" in many legal instruments means any assembly of the full membership, whether regularly scheduled or specially called. Researchers should not assume that a source's reference to a "general meeting" is exclusively the annual assembly; some documents use the term to cover all non-board meetings of the full membership body.
GENERAL MEETING vs. SPECIAL MEETING: A special meeting (also called an extraordinary general meeting in many jurisdictions) is convened outside the regular schedule for a specific, limited purpose stated in the notice. The business transacted at a special meeting is ordinarily confined to the stated purpose. At a general meeting, a broader range of business may be transacted according to the agenda or governing rules.
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Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Annual General Meeting (AGM): The statutorily or contractually required yearly assembly of all members. Typically addresses standard recurring business — financial reports, director elections, auditor appointments.
Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) / Special General Meeting: A general meeting called outside the regular schedule, usually to address urgent or major matters — mergers, dissolution, amendments to constitutive documents, removal of directors.
General Meeting of Creditors: A meeting of all creditors in an insolvency proceeding, distinguished from meetings of particular creditor classes.
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Why It Matters in Research
The term "general meeting" is deceptively simple but jurisdictionally variable in ways that matter. In U.S. corporate law, the term is used less frequently as a term of art; American statutes and model acts (such as the Model Business Corporation Act) speak of "annual meetings" and "special meetings" of shareholders. In U.K., Commonwealth, and civil-law-influenced sources — and in the corporate laws of many offshore jurisdictions popular for entity formation — "general meeting" is the operative statutory phrase and carries with it a developed body of procedural rules about notice periods, quorum requirements, proxies, and resolution types (ordinary vs. special).
Researchers working with older American corporate materials, English cases, or comparative corporate law sources must track which regime governs. A case or treatise interpreting a statute that uses "general meeting" cannot be read interchangeably with U.S. materials that use "shareholder meeting" without confirming procedural equivalence.
In condominium and homeowners association law, "general meeting" (or "meeting of all unit owners") functions similarly to a shareholder general meeting — it is the reserved democratic check on board authority. Researchers examining governance disputes in common-interest communities will find this the primary locus of member voting rights.
For insolvency researchers: the general meeting of creditors has been progressively formalized and, in some modern insolvency regimes, partially displaced by written procedures or creditor committee action. Historical bankruptcy sources will reflect an earlier model in which the in-person general meeting was more central.
Notice and quorum defects are frequent grounds for challenging resolutions passed at general meetings. Researchers tracing the validity of a corporate or organizational decision should examine not just the resolution but the notice and quorum record.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary defines the term concisely as "a meeting of all the stockholders of a corporation, all the creditors of a bankrupt, etc." This captures the essential feature — universality of membership within the relevant class — but does not address procedural requirements, types of business transacted, or the distinction from special or committee meetings. As a navigational definition it is reliable; as a research stopping point it is insufficient.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary redirects to "MEET," which reflects the older pattern of treating "meeting" as the operative term. Bouvier's approach is consistent with the 19th-century treatment of this subject, where meeting-related rules were embedded in corporate charters and general incorporation statutes rather than in standardized common-law doctrine. Researchers using Bouvier should follow the cross-reference and consult the broader entry on meetings.
Neither historical dictionary addresses the AGM/EGM distinction with any specificity, nor do they reflect the procedural elaboration that modern corporate statutes impose. For anything beyond a baseline orientation, historical dictionaries should be supplemented with the relevant corporate or insolvency statute and, where applicable, the entity's governing documents (charter, bylaws, or articles of association).
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Jurisdictional Note
The terminology and procedural rules for general meetings vary substantially between U.S. and Commonwealth jurisdictions. U.K. company law and the laws of many Commonwealth and offshore jurisdictions treat "general meeting" as a formal term of art with statutory content; U.S. state corporate statutes typically use "annual meeting" and "special meeting" instead. Researchers should identify the governing jurisdiction and the relevant statute before assuming that doctrinal rules from one system apply to another.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
realestate_73: Condominium Governance — Board Authority, Unit Owner Rights, and Meeting Requirements (The Law Mind Real Estate Transactions & Construction Encyclopedia)
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