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移植与差异:有限责任公司制度研究

Transplantation and Change: A Dissertation on the Limited Liability Company

【作者】 谭甄

【导师】 方流芳;

【作者基本信息】 中国政法大学 , 民商法学, 2003, 博士

【摘要】 本文试图从法律移植的视角来研究有限责任公司制度,通过分析该制度在其母国产生及成功的原因和植入我国后所发生的根本性变化,探讨我国有限责任公司制度的未来走向及对其他企业立法所具有的借鉴意义。1892年德国《有限责任公司法》创造的有限责任公司虽被称作“立法者的发明”,但它并非是立法者凭空设想的产物,1884年德国对股份有限公司规定的修改是其产生的直接动因。这次修改严格了对股份有限公司设立及信息批露的要求,契约自由在其中也受到了极大限制,给原先采用股份有限公司作为组织形式并未感到不便的中小企业造成了障碍。对这些企业来说,修改后的严格规定是一种不必要的负担。为了满足中小企业的需要,立法者设计了有限责任公司,通过它来填补股份有限公司与合伙间的空白。与“有限责任公司”这一概念来自德国立法者的创造不同,“私公司”虽在英国《1907年公司法》中才首次被规定,但在此之前,这一概念已经出现。尽管“有限责任公司”来自法律的创造,“私公司”来自对实践中已存在事物的承认,但它们的立法背景是相同的,都是规范股份有限公司的法律由自由宽松趋向严格细密,不再适合中小企业采用,从而要求立法提供新的、灵活的、适应中小企业需要的法律形式。所以,在创造和承认的不同表象之下,一致的是立法者对现实需求积极回应的态度。在企业形态法定主义的要求下,这一态度尤为重要。德国创设的有限责任公司制度,具有以下特征:(1)股东承担有限责任。有限责任限制了股东的投资风险,虽然合同债权人可以通过要求股东提供担保使这种有限责任对股东失去意义,但对于限制股东对侵权债权人的责任仍具有重要意义。(2)公司具有闭锁性。有限责任公司被禁止向公众发行股票筹集资金,股东转让出资受到来自法律或章程的程序性或实体性限制。有限责任公司的闭锁性是它与股份有限公司的本质性区别,该特征在有限责任公司的诸特征中具有核心地位,因为除上述股东承担有限责任的特征外,下述特征皆与其有关,以其作为基础。(3)公司章程的自由与灵活。有限责任公司的闭锁性特征使有限责任公司不会像股份有限公司那样可能拥有众多的投资者,减少了国家干预的必要性,其章程在很大程度上适用合同自由原则。(4)股东参与公司管理。与大型股份有限公司中一般存在着所有和控制的分离不同,有限责任公司的股东通常积极参与公司管理,这种参与既包括以股东的身份参与股东会决议,也包括以董事等身份参与公司管理。(5)设立及运作成本低。法律对有限责任公司要求宽松,强制性规定少,大大节省了有限责任公司在设立和运作中的成本。英国的私公司也具有上述各项特征。<WP=4>这些特征符合中小企业的需要,为中小企业在已有的组织形式外提供了一种新的、更好的选择,有限责任公司现已成为德国使用最为广泛的公司组织形式,私公司在英国的数量现在也远远超过了公众公司。它们的成功表明,一种法定的企业组织形式是否成功,关键不在于它是对已有组织形式的承认还是立法者的创设,而在于立法的规定是否满足了一定投资者的现实需要。德国的有限责任公司和英国的私公司在本国取得成功的同时,也开始为他国立法所继受。在一百多年的时间里,有限责任公司(私公司)制度得以在全球扩展,成为各国普遍承认的一种企业组织形式。我国是继受德国有限责任公司制度的国家之一,其为我国立法承认始于1904年清政府制定的《公司律》,《公司律》中的合资有限公司指的即是有限责任公司,但立法的应急性、立法者对有限责任公司功能的缺乏认识等原因使得有关规定极为简陋,加之我国有投资者承担无限责任的商业传统,这些都妨碍了国人采纳有限责任公司作为组织形式,进而在1914年北洋政府制定的《公司条例》中即删去了关于合资有限公司的规定。此后,直到1946年,有限责任公司才再度在国民政府修订《公司法》时被增设为一种新的公司类型,根据起草者的解释,增设有限责任公司的目的是为了“便利政府与人民合组公司,或政府与外人合组公司,或中央政府与地方政府合组公司,然亦不禁人民组织有限公司”,与德国创设有限责任公司的本意背道而驰。国民政府对有限责任公司的这一本土化改造,被事实证明是失败的,不仅国营企业未因采用有限责任公司而得到改进,而且抑制了民营企业的发展。新中国成立后颁布的《私营企业暂行条例》,允许私营企业采用有限责任公司作为组织形式,以达到“公私兼顾,劳资两利”,该《条例》在当时起到了积极作用。但随着社会主义改造的完成,该《条例》因调整对象的消失而自行失效。从社会主义改造完成到经济体制改革之前,作为独立民事主体的西方现代意义上的公司在我国的经济生活中失去了踪影,拥有“公司”称谓的组织实质上只是一种承担政府经济职能的行政机构。十一届三中全会确立的改革开放方针一经贯彻实施,有限责任公司就作为外商投资企业的一种组织形式得到法律的承认。因为对外商投资企业来说,过去的以所有制为分类标准的企业类型无法适用,有限责任公司则既可以限制外商的投资风险,吸引外资进入,又不会引起意识形态的争论,符合中外双方的需要。1988年

【Abstract】 The aim in this dissertation is to assess where China’s limited liability company (LLC) could be going and what other enterprise legislations could learn from it by analyzing the reasons why the LLC originated and succeeded in west countries and the change when the LLC was transplanted to China. The LLC originated in Germany. It was first governed by Gesetz betreffend die Gesellschaften mit beschr?nkter Haftung (GmbHG) of 1892. It is a German invention without any historic precedent. The object was to fill a gap between the existing types of associations, the stock company on the one hand and the partnership on the other hand. The immediate stimulus behind the search for a new form of organization was the realization that the marketable share companies (MSC) was not suitable for small and medium-sized businesses or for firms composed of a few members who were not only acquainted with one another but who also supplied all of the capital themselves. This was particularly true after the reform of 1884 tightened the rules governing the founding of MSCs and disclosure.While the German GmbH was an entirely new creation of the legislative process, the English private company (PrC) developed first in practice and was only later given recognition by the legislature. The Companies Act of 1907 for the first time contained a statutory definition of the "private company" and equipped it with certain advantages not enjoyed by the public company. However, the evolution of both German GmbH and England PrC is closely related to the history of legislation regulating the MSC. Reforms tightening the rules governing the MSC led to the idea of creating a second kind of company to meet the need of small and medium-sized enterprises. The LLC invented by German lawmakers has the following characters: (1) Shareholders are not personally liable for the company’s debts, which effectively limits risks of shareholders. (2) The relatively closed membership makes the relationship<WP=7>between shareholders stable. Shares in the LLC cannot be offered to the public and cannot be traded on the stock exchange. There are special requirements provided by the law or the articles for effecting a transfer of shares either in the form of burdensome formalities or through substantive restrictions. The LLC is distinguishable from the MSC primarily because of restrictions on the transfer of shares. This character is the core of all characters of the LLC. (3) The memorandum of association of the LLC is to a great extent governed by the principle of freedom of contract. Relatively few legal provisions are mandatory so that there is ample room for an individual design of the articles of incorporation. (4) Shareholders retain absolute control power. Unlike the MSC, the degree of separation of ownership and control in the LLC is slight. (5) The legal structure of the LLC is simple so that the cost is low. The PrC in England also has these characters.These characters correspond to the requirements of small and medium-sized enterprises so that the practice of the LLC/PrC is successful. Since the introduction of the LLC, the number of corporations organized as GmbHs has grown steadily. Today, the LLC is the most widely used corporate legal form in Germany. The number of PrC also far exceeds the number of the public company in England. The LLC/PrC has spread around the globe in only 100 years and now constitutes the world’s most successful form of enterprise. China is one of the countries that have taken over the idea of the form of enterprise and issued regulations similar to the German provisions of GmbH. The Company Law enacted by the Qing dynasty’s legislature in 1904 recognized the LLC for the first time but the rough content and the business tradition of being personal liable for the business prevented investors using the LLC. When the Minguo’s legislature amended the Company Law of 1929 in 1946, the LLC was recognized again to develop state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Reality proved that not only SOEs using the LLC gained no improvement,

  • 【分类号】D912.29
  • 【被引频次】15
  • 【下载频次】1449
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