3.4.4.3 Significance of alternative terms of relief besides dissolution

The development of the interpretation of oppression is intertwined with the development of alternative forms of relief. To be specific, the advent of alternative forms of relief has helped to liberalize and broaden the definition of oppressive conduct. Thanks to less harsh remedies, courts are more willing to intervene in oppressive conduct which traditionally would not have met the standard of dissolution, but now can be remedied by alternative relief. The threshold of identifying oppressive conduct has thus been lowered and the availability of this remedy has consequently increased.1 Nowadays, a dissolution order is an exception rather than a rule. As first witnessed in Britain,2 this remedy in the US has also "outgrown its dissolution origins and now is better described as a general remedy for shareholder dissention within a close corporation that only rarely results in the dissolution of a corporation.3