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Regulatory Approaches to Groups of Companies in States in Transition in Central and Eastern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Christa Jessel-Holst
Christa Jessel-Holst
Affiliation:
Dr. iur., Research Associate, Max Planck Institute for Foreign Private and Private International Law, Hamburg.
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Extract

During socialist times the socialist enterprises were the basic entities of the socialist economic system. Admittedly, there were also commercial companies in Central and Eastern Europe in this period, but examples tended to be rare. In the form of limited liability companies (owned by the state or by a state entity) they typically served the purpose of facilitating economic exchange with third countries (companies or banks for foreign trade, insurance companies, etc.). In Romania, Hungary, Poland and the GDR, for example, their legal foundations dated from the period in between the World Wars, and partly even from the 19th century. Regulation largely ceased to develop after that time. Bulgaria, to mention another example, abolished – without substitution – its Commercial Code and Act on Private Limited Companies in 1951, dissolved all trading companies and vested in the Ministerial Council the authority to set up companies by the mere approval of their articles of association. In this way, the insurance company Bustrad and the Bulgarian Bank of Foreign Trade were set up in 1961 and 1964 respectively, both of them as public limited companies. Following a number of intermediate steps, of which the State Council's resolution 56/1989 on economic activity deserves special mention, Bulgarian company law was finally recodified in the second part of the commercial code in 1991.

Type
Articles
Information
European Business Organization Law Review (EBOR) , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 2001 , pp. 45 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press and the Authors 2001

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References

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16 Dz.U. 2000 no. 94 pos. 1037. German translation in: Breidenbach (ed.), supra n. 12, PL 350 (forthcoming).

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18 Civil Code of the Russian Federation, first part from 1994, SZ RF 1994 no. 32, Pos. 3301. German translation in: WOS, supra n. 6, Russland III 1.

19 Federal Law on private limited companies from 1998, Rossijskaja Gazeta of 17 February 1998. German translation in: WOS, supra n. 6, Russland III 3 d.

20 Federal Law on public limited companies from 1995, SZ RF 1996 no. 1, Pos. 1. German translation in: WOS, supra n. 6, Russland III 3 a.

21 Federal Law on financial and industrial groups from 1995, SZ 1995 no. 49, Pos. 4697. German translation in: WOS, supra n. 6, Russland III 3 k.

22 Službene novine Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine 1995 no. 2, Pos. 23.

23 Službeni list Republike Bosne i Hercegovine 1994 no. 33, Pos. 468.

24 Službeni list Republike Srbske 1998 no. 43. Partial German translation in: Breidenbach (ed.), supra n. 12, BiH 331. Cf., Pürner, , “Bosnien und Herzegowina/Republika Srbska: Gesetzliche Regelungen bezüglich der GmbH”, WiRO (1999) 263.Google Scholar

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27 Cf., Art. 476 Croatian CCL and Art. 463 Slovenian CCL.

28 “The provisions on company groups are observed as something almost exotic and not within the reach of regular application”, quoted from Petrović, , “Legal Regulation of Company Groups. Country Report Croatia”, 2 EBOR (2001) No. 2 (forthcoming)Google Scholar. Similar reservations to the acceptance of the German law on groups have been expressed in Polish scholarly writing. Cf., Sołtysiński/ Szumanski, supra n. 16.

29 Tichy, , “Das neue tschechische Konzernrecht im Vergleich mit der deutschen Regelung und dem Entwurf der sog. 13. EU-Richtlinie”, in: Hopt, , Jessel-Holst, and Pistor, (eds.), Emergence, Behavior, and Regulation of Company Groups in Transition Economies in Legal and Economic Perspective (forthcoming).Google Scholar

30 Cf., also Sołtysiński/ Szumanski, supra n. 16.

31 Loi no. 66-537 sur les sociétés commerciales, 14 July 1966.

32 Cf., Prinz zu Löwenstein, Albanien: Erster Teil des Handelsgesetzbuchs und Gesetz über Handelsgesellschaften, WiRO (1994) 348. See also Boglia, , “The New Albanian Act on Business Associations: Ongoing Legal Reforms in Commercial and Private Law”, Review of Central and East European Law (1994) 657, at pp. 670 et seq.Google Scholar

33 Cf., Đurović, supra n. 9, at p. 72.

34 Arts. 481-508 of the Portugese law on companies; Cf., Liesegang, , Die Europäische Aktiengesellschaft und das Gesellschaftsrecht Portugals (1994) pp. 64–66.Google Scholar

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36 Cf., Petrović, supra n. 28.

37 Sołysinski/ Szumanski, supra n. 28.

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41 Sołtysiński/ Szumanski, supra n. 16.

42 See Art. 478 of the Croatian CCL and Art. 465 of the Slovenian CCL.

43 Cf., Loi no. 66-537 sur les sociétés commerciales, 14 July 1966, Arts. 358 et seq.

44 Cf., e.g., Sándor, / Sárközy, , Legal Rules for Corporate Groups in Hungary”, 2 EBOR (2001) No. 2 (forthcoming).Google Scholar

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46 Law on procedures for take-overs of public limited companies, N.n. 1997 no. 124 Pos. 1806. German translation in: WOS, supra n. 6, Kroatien III 3 b.

47 Cf., Law no. 142/1996 Sb and no. 15/1998 Sb (German translation in: Breidenbach (ed.), supra n. 12, CS 300); amended by Law no. 100/2000 Sb.

48 SZ RF 1996 no. 1, Pos. 1. German translation in: WOS, supra n. 6, Russland III 3 a.

49 Law on public offer of securities, D.V. 1999 no. 114. German translation in: WOS, supra n. 6, Bulgarien VIII 2 a.

50 Dz.U. 1997 no. 118, Arts. 154 et seq. German translation in: Breidenbach (ed.), supra n. 12, PL 520. An amendment is apparently forthcoming.

51 M.K. 1996 S. 6105. German translation in: WOS, supra n. 6, Ungarn VIII 2 a.

52 Inserted by Law no. CXLIV (M.K. 1997 S. 8477); § 94/H para. 2 inserted by Law no. XXX (M.K. 1998 p. 2418).

53 M. Of. I 1994 no. 210.

54 See the criticism by Petrović, supra n. 28, at pp. 20 et seq.

55 Cf., Art. 97 of the Law on Securities, Stock exchanges and Investment Companies from 1995, D.V. 1995 no. 63.

56 Sołtysiński/ Szumanski, supra n. 16, with references to the current discussion.

57 On the state of the law see also Dedič, and Bucková, , “Übernahmerecht und Meldepflicht in Tschechien. Im Blickpunkt: Ein Rechtsvergleich mit der Regelung des Übernahmerechts in der EU und in Österreich”, Recht der internationalen Wirtschaft (1999) 193.Google Scholar

58 Cf., David, “Company Groups in Romania – Current Status and Legal Implications” (with reference to Art. 89 G no. 52/1994) in: Hopt, , Jessel-Holst, and Pistor, (eds.), Emergence, Behavior, and Regulation of Company Groups in Transition Economies in Legal and Economic Perspective (forthcoming).Google Scholar

59 See Sándor/ Sárközy, supra n. 44.

60 See Sándor/ Sárközy, ibid.

61 Ibid.

62 See the criticism by Sándor/ Sárközy, supra n. 44, at p. 10.

63 Sołtysiński/ Szumanski, supra n. 16.

64 Civil Code of the Russian Federation, first section: Sobranie zakonodatel stva RF 1994 no. 32, Pos. 3301. German translation in: WOS, supra n. 6, Russland III 1.

65 Cf., also Heeg, , “Durchgriffshaftung im russischen Recht der Kapitalgesellschaften”, WiRO (2000) 1.Google Scholar

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