A neutral, doctrine-by-doctrine comparison — not a value judgment. Texas’s framework is more code-forward; Delaware’s is more case-law-forward; the two arrive at functionally similar baselines on some questions and materially different baselines on others. Figure 6 maps the nine principal axes.
Figure 6 · Texas vs. Delaware
| Doctrinal axis | Texas | Delaware |
|---|---|---|
| Director duties — source | Common law within statutory architecture (TBOC §§ 21.401, 3.102) | Judge-made (Chancery doctrine; Smith v. Van Gorkom, 488 A.2d 858 (Del. 1985), and successors) |
| Officer duties | Owed to the corporation; officers and directors analyzed together under the business judgment rule (Sneed v. Webre, 465 S.W.3d 169 (Tex. 2015)); conflicted-officer procedures tightened by TBOC §§ 21.416, 21.418 | Parallel to directors post-Gantler v. Stephens, 965 A.2d 695, 708–09 (Del. 2009) |
| Inter-shareholder duties (closely-held) | No general oppression cause of action (Ritchie, 2014; Estate of Poe, 2022) | No special closely-held regime absent a statutory close-corporation election (Nixon v. Blackwell, 626 A.2d 1366 (Del. 1993)); controlling-stockholder duties arise under general fiduciary doctrine |
| Business-judgment rule | Codified for listed / opt-in (TBOC § 21.419) | Common law (Aronson v. Lewis line; abstention doctrine per Bainbridge) |
| Controller-transaction cleansing | TBOC § 21.4161 pre-transaction independence determination | DGCL § 144(b)/(c) post-SB 21; common-law MFW framework where the statutory safe harbor does not govern (Kahn v. M & F Worldwide, 88 A.3d 635 (Del. 2014)) |
| Veil-piercing | TBOC § 21.223 + § 21.224 (statutory); Castleberry, SSP Partners, Keyes overlay | Common law (alter ego, sham, instrumentality) |
| Takeover-defense permissibility | Express statutory authorization (TBOC § 21.401(b) permitted considerations) | Common law (Unocal / Unitrin) |
| Forum | Texas Business Court (Tex. Gov't Code ch. 25A) + TBOC § 2.115 exclusive-forum authority | Delaware Court of Chancery |
| Internal-entity jury waiver | Authorized by TBOC § 2.116 | Not statutorily authorized; jury trials rare in Chancery |
Sources. Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code Ann. (West 2025); Ritchie v. Rupe, 443 S.W.3d 856 (Tex. 2014); In re Estate of Poe, 648 S.W.3d 277 (Tex. 2022); Keyes v. Weller, 692 S.W.3d 274 (Tex. 2024); Del. Code tit. 8 (DGCL); Gantler v. Stephens, 965 A.2d 695 (Del. 2009); Kahn v. M & F Worldwide Corp., 88 A.3d 635 (Del. 2014).