By Matthew Solum and Stephanie Shimada (May 28, 2019, 2:28 PM EDT) -- Section 220 of Title 8 of the Delaware Code allows a corporation's stockholders to make a written demand to inspect the corporation's "books and records." While initially conceived as an expansion of the common law right of stockholders to monitor the performance of their agents in corporate affairs,[1] Section 220 has evolved into a tool that stockholders (and their lawyers) use to obtain discovery to pursue litigation against a corporation's directors and officers. To make a Section 220 demand, a stockholder must, among other things, identify a proper purpose for the demand and the requested books and records must be "necessary" for that purpose. ...