The background to this thesis is the most recent and significant company law reforms in England and China, particularly those concerned with minority shareholders' remedies. The implementation of the Companies Act 2006 in England and the Chinese Company Law 2005 makes this comparative research interesting and challenging. At this time, it is especially worthwhile because of England's already sophisticated level of economic development and the current rapid rise of China as a leading economic power with enormous potential. The thesis examines the deficiencies of current laws on minority shareholders' remedies in both England and China, in particular shareholders' personal actions. derivative actions and the unfair prejudice remedies. It proposes for each jurisdiction further reforms which could be carried out to achieve a proper balance between the protection of minority shareholder interests and those of their companies. The latter often suffer from undue interference from litigious activities of the former. By way of comparison, it shows that England and China can learn from each other with regard to future law reforms concerned with minority shareholders' remedies whilst taking into account their different constitutional, political, socio-economic, legal and cultural backgrounds.

Corporations have emerged as key actors on the international plane challenging the prevalence of the sovereign State as the basic block of the international legal order. Not only does the economic power of corporate entities outstrip that of certain States, but also corporations are increasingly assuming functions comparable to those of States as a result of the trend of privatization. It is for this reason that calls for the direct regulation of corporations by virtue of international law have proliferated. The creation of international law obligations binding directly on corporations is thought to be a credible means of securing compliance of corporate conduct with fundamental rules of the international legal order. The question then becomes how corporate obligations fit within the predominantly State-centric framework of international law. An examination of corporate obligations under international law has to proceed on a number of levels. If international law is found to be applicable to corporations, then one needs to ascertain the conditions necessary for the emergence of corporate obligations. The next level is an ontological one, namely an examination of the sources of potential corporate obligations under positive international law resulting in the affirmation or negation of the creation of corporate obligations. The attitude of States towards corporate obligations as it transpires from the examination of the sources speaks to the normative concerns underlying the whole endeavor to envelop corporations in the international legal order. The final level of analysis is structural. Assuming that international law gives rise to obligations binding directly on corporations, one has to question the scope and structure of performance of these obligations as compared to the respective obligations of States.

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This thesis is composed of five chapters. The first chapter addresses general aspects regarding the piercing of the corporate veil. The rationale for this chapter is to give a brief overview of piercing the corporate veil and address basic aspects that will be covered in this thesis; for example, piercing the corporate veil in corporate groups and piercing the corporate veil in the context of privately owned companies. Additionally, reasons for not covering points such as piercing the corporate veil in the context of public companies will be mentioned. The second chapter is dedicated to studying the piercing of the corporate veil in England and the U.S .. These jurisdictions are the parents of the modern corporate personality and general aspects about piercing . the corporate veil derive from these countries. Thus, Chapter Two can be regarded as a continuation of Chapter One. My purpose is to present the Anglo-American piercing of the corporate veil for it to be contrasted in Chapter Three. Chapter Two starts by addressing the piercing of the corporate veil in England and the reasons for the current position of English courts over this matter. The second part of this chapter is dedicated to the U.S. and its approaches developed in order to deal with corporate personality in that jurisdiction. This chapter concludes by stating the reasons why these jurisdictions have different positions regarding this subject. The third chapter will cover the piercing of the corporate veil in Spain and Latin America. This chapter starts by addressing general aspects of the corporate personality in Spain and Latin America as well as civil law concepts and principles used by these jurisdictions when dealing with corporate personality issues. The second section of this chapter is dedicated to Spain and corporate personality issues in that jurisdiction. Following, is the third section which starts by making a brief comment about the reasons for choosing the jurisdictions subject of study before continuing by addressing Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Brazil individually. This chapter ends by making a comparison between the methods used by Spain and the discussed Latin American jurisdictions. The fourth chapter is dedicated to the main case study, Panama. In this chapter, basic aspects of the Panamanian corporate entity in addition to the way in which Panamanian authorities have dealt with corporate veil issues to date are addressed. Finally, the principle of san a critica will be explained in the fifth chapter. The origins and rationale for the existence of sana critica and the reason to consider it suitable for supplementing an approach to deal with corporate veil issues. In addition, each of the rules on which sana critica is founded will be explained as well as the influence these rules have had over judges thinking and judgments. This chapter ends with a suggestion for the development of an approach to deal with corporate veil issues in Panama.

In the last four decades, one of the fastest-growing fields of research in economics has been the contractual theory of the firm developed in Coase’s (1937) footsteps. Yet despite what otherwise seems to be a genuine success story the question of the nature of the firm remains an empirical and theoretical challenge, painfully illustrated by the lack of consensus regarding the definition and boundaries of the firm. The argument of this thesis is that many thorny questions that plague the literature, including issues related to ownership, boundaries, and intra-firm authority, are due to the fact that contractual theorists of the firm have generally overlooked a key legal feature of the economic system, without which theories of the firm are like Hamlet without the Prince. An elementary institutional fact about firms and markets is that in order to become a fully operational firm in a modern market economy, an entrepreneur or an association of resource owners need to go through a registration or incorporation procedure by which the legal system creates a separate legal person or legal entity in which ownership rights over assets used in production are vested, in whose name contracts are made, and thanks to which the firm has standing in court. With this assignment of legal personality, the legal system creates the efficiency-enhancing nexus for contracts that literally carries the organizational framework of the firm, and secures its continuity by locking-in the founders’ committed capital, thereby allowing them to pledge assets, raise finance and do business in the firm’s own name. Given the basic principle that only legal persons may own property and have the capacity to contract, and the implication that legally enforceable contracts can only exist between legal persons, it is something of a paradox that the notion of legal personality is absent from the prevailing narrative in the contractual theory of the firm. The thesis examines the reasons behind this state of affairs, and identifies alongside the widespread view among economists that firms can be defined with little or no reference to law, particularly statutory law, the lasting influence of Jensen and Meckling’s (1976) ambiguous dismissal of legal personality as a legal fiction that unavoidably leads to misleading reification. In order to disentangle the issues involved, the thesis puts this argument into historical perspective, and suggests that much can be learned from the corporate personality controversy that in the past has addressed the same questions. As the overview of the history of this debate reveals, the category mistakes that Jensen and Meckling presented as inevitable can be easily avoided once the meaning and functions of legal personality are properly understood. The thesis dispels enduring misunderstandings surrounding the notion of personhood, and proposes a legally-grounded view of the nature and boundaries of the firm that recognizes in law’s provision of legal entity status a fundamental institutional support for the firm while fitting the overall Coasean narrative.

L'objet de la thèse est d'envisager l'évolution de la loi et de la jurisprudence en matière de garanties personnelles des sociétés afin de statuer sur leur validité et leur efficacité dans le monde des affaires. La thèse vise à présenter une étude comparée entre le droit français et le droit libanais s'agissant d'une pan des garanties personnelles consenties par les sociétés et d'autre pan, des garanties personnelles consenties au profit des sociétés. La première partie est consacrée à traiter les principes de validité de la garantie personnelle, en premier temps, lorsqu'elle est consentie par les différents types de sociétés, que ce soit une société à risques limités ou bien une société à risques illimités; et en second temps, lorsqu'un changement de la situation juridique de la société s'est produit, que ce soit par fusion ou bien par transformation. La deuxième partie vise à traiter l'efficacité de la garantie personnelle, premièrement, lorsqu'elle est souscrite par le dirigeant social dans l'intérêt de la société, en considérant les obligations imposées au créancier s'agissant d'une part de l'évolution de la dette garantie ou bien de la défaillance du débiteur principal et d'autre part de la vérification de la proportionnalité entre l'engagement du garant personne physique et sa capacité :financière ; et deuxièmement, lorsque la garantie personnelle est souscrite par une banque au profit de la société, en présentant les différentes règles conventionnelles internationales relatives aux garanties bancaires pour en déduire celles qui sont les plus avantageuses pour la société. / The thesis studies the evolution of laws and jurisprudence of persona! guarantees and their affiliation with companies and assesses the person guarantees validity and effectiveness in the business world. lt also aims to present comparative analyses between the French laws and the Lebanese laws governing personal guarantees, whether issued by or granted to companies. The first part of the thesis analyzes the validity of personal guarantees in different types of companies. lt also assesses the effect of changes in the legal status of companies whether due to mergers or transformations. The second part of the thesis addresses the effectiveness of persona! guarantees granted to companies whether by their directors or by banks. The study examines the beneficiary's obligations to ensure that the financial standing of the director is appropriate in relation to the commitments imposed by the guarantee and to inform the director (guarantor) of the evolution of the guaranteed debt and/or the bankruptcy of the principal (guaranteed party). The study also evaluates the International Conventional Rules governing guarantees issued by banks and identifies the rules that are the most beneficial to be adopted by companies.

La SARL dispose d’un encadrement juridique assez précis, tout en offrant à ses utilisateursdes espaces de liberté non négligeables. La liberté statutaire accordée aux associés peut être envisagéesous deux aspects principaux, le premier relatif au financement de la société et le second portant surl’organisation des pouvoirs au sein de la structure. En premier lieu, le législateur a cherché, depuis unedécennie, à faciliter la création de SARL en diminuant la contrainte financière que constituait la fixationd’un capital légal minimum. Toutefois, la libre détermination de ce montant est susceptible de fragiliserl’assise financière de certaines entreprises au point de les exposer parfois au risque d'une souscapitalisation.En présence d’un capital symbolique, il est au demeurant permis de s’interroger sur laprésence même des éléments constitutifs du contrat de société. En outre, d’autres incidences négativessont susceptibles d’apparaître, telles que la mise en oeuvre de la responsabilité des associés et desgérants au titre de l’insuffisance d’actif ou l’obtention par les banques de garanties prises sur lepatrimoine personnel des dirigeants ou des associés préalablement à l'octroi de crédits à la société. Laconséquence de cette situation est alors une sensible altération du principe de responsabilité limitéepourtant initialement recherchée par les fondateurs de SARL. Par ailleurs, si la loi a permis il y a peu derecourir à l’emprunt obligataire et à l’apport en industrie, ces techniques juridiques ne permettent pasd’accroître véritablement la solidité financière d’une entreprise. Dès lors, n'est-ce pas sur le fondementde la liberté statutaire que pourraient être instaurés des mécanismes spécifiques de financement del'activité? En second lieu, l’exercice de cette même liberté présente un intérêt particulier aux fins decirconscrire, dans l’ordre interne, les pouvoirs des gérants légalement définis en des termes très larges. Ilreste que le principe de l’inopposabilité aux tiers des clauses limitatives de pouvoirs constitue une limiteimportante à la pleine efficacité de tels aménagements. En définitive, si le régime de la SARL offre deréelles opportunités d'amélioration des règles d’organisation et de fonctionnement de la société, il n'endemeure pas moins que la liberté statutaire recèle elle-même certains inconvénients qui devraientappeler une intervention du législateur. / If the French SARL (limited liability company) is governed by a precise legal framework,their users benefit from appreciable areas of freedom to adapt them to specific needs. The purpose ofthis thesis is to investigate two main aspects of the statutory freedom granted to SARL: the way thiscompany can be funded and how powers are organised. Firstly, if the legislator has facilitated thecreation of SARL by reducing the financial constraint of a minimum legal share capital for a decadenow, this statutory freedom can weaken the financial basis of companies leading them to undercapitalization.In case of a share capital fixed at a nominal value, the assets can be regarded asinsufficient and the constituent elements of the partnership agreement can be questioned. The mainconsequences of this situation are possible recourse against partners and managers in terms ofresponsibility, additional guaranties demanded by the banks on their personal assets to cover company’sloans. These corporate risks finally put the SARL in contradiction with their objects. Besides, if thelegislator allows issuance of bonds and sweat equity, these legal instruments are insufficient to increasecompanies’ financial bases. Hence, couldn't specific funding methods be introduced on the basis ofstatutory freedom? Secondly, as the legal framework grants to SARL’s managers a large representationpower, statutory freedom allows to limit it and to place managers under the control of the partners. Butthis organisational freedom is itself limited by the fact that it is not enforceable against third-parties. Asa whole, if the legal system governing the SARL offers real opportunities in order to improve the rulesof organization and management, the intervention of the legislator would be appropriate in order tosolve statutory freedom’s shortcomings.

Les modifications du capitalisme et la financiarisation du droit des sociétés ont conduit au déclin de la notion de titre de capital telle qu'elle résulte de la théorie classique qui la définit comme une fraction du capital social représentant un droit d'associé dans une société de capitaux. Ce déclin se manifeste notamment par la remise en cause de la notion d'apport, l'instrumentalisation de la titularité du titre de capital par la pratique ainsi que la décadence des fonctions traditionnelles du capital social. Les incertitudes conceptuelles induites par la financiarisation invite ainsi à s'interroger sur l'utilité de la notion de titre de capital sous l'effet de la dégénérescence du capital social et l'érosion de la distinction entre actions et obligations. Or, force est de constater que la notion garde un intérêt, d'abord parce que l'examen de l'avenir du capital social montre que son abandon n'affecte pas la notion de titre de capital qui peut se désolidariser du capital social à travers la consécration des actions sans pair comptable représentant une fraction des capitaux propres. Ensuite parce que la remise en cause de la dichotomie actions/obligations ne fait pas disparaître la distinction plus large entre titres de capital et titres de créance qui garde un intérêt certain en droit des sociétés. Cependant, la recherche d'une nouvelle frontière rend nécessaire la délimitation du domaine réservé des titres de capital et la détermination de la place des valeurs mobilières donnant accès au capital du fait de leur caractère hybride. / The developments brought by the evolution of capitalisrn and finance to corporate law have led to the erosion of the traditional definition of equity securities, which were conventionally defined as a fraction of the share capital of a company that represents shareholders' rights. This is evidenced by the decline of capital contributions, the exploitation of ownership interests in the company in practice and the weakening of the traditional legal notion of capital. These conceptual uncertainties invite us to reconsider the utility of the concept of equity securities faced with the changing legal understanding of capital stock and the erosion of the traditional distinction between shares and bonds. Nonetheless, despite these developments, the concept of equity securities remains useful for two main reasons : first, upon evaluating the future of the legal capital, it becomes evident that the changes to the legal concept of capital stock should not affect the very existence of equity securities if shares with no par value are introduced ; and second, the overarching distinction between equity and debt remains essential in corporate law and cannot therefore be eliminated. However, il is necessary to redefine the boundaries between equity and debt and to clarify the legal nature of certain hybrid forms of securities.

La victime en col blanc est mésestimée, tant par l’opinion publique que par le droit. Si les infractions en matière économique, financière et boursière heurtent, les personnes lésées par ces agissements bénéficient peu de l’empathie traditionnellement accordée aux victimes pénales. Parmi elles, il en est cependant une qui mérite une attention particulière : l’associé. Alors qu’une personne sur trois dispose en France de cette qualité, l’associé est susceptible d’être une victime du fait de son engagement. Acteur social majeur, il peut subir les effets d’une infraction au droit pénal des sociétés. Lorsqu’il est la victime d’une telle infraction, l’associé a vocation à exercer une action civile. Action en réparation appartenant à tous ceux ayant subi un dommage directement causé par l’infraction, celle-ci est toutefois réservée aux seuls associés titulaires du bien juridique protégé par l’incrimination chef des poursuites. Alors que le droit d’agir en action civile de l’associé est ainsi limité, le bien-fondé de la demande en réparation de son préjudice est également soumis à des conditions interprétées à l’aune de théories singulières. Le brouillard dans lequel se situe aujourd’hui l’associé victime d’une infraction au droit pénal des sociétés est dense. Il nous revient de l’en sortir en proposant des évolutions conformes au droit et répondant à la situation réelle de cette victime pénale jusque-là oubliée. / White-collar victims are usually left on the sidelines, both by the public opinion and the law. While economic and financial offences, without mentioning those related to stock market, are conscience-shocking, the victims of those offences are not of much concern. Yet, one of them is worth paying attention to, i.e. the partner. Being a partner, which is the case for one-in-three French people, may involve a side-effect, that is being victim of his or her own commitment. As a major actor of both business and social life, the partner may be harmed by a business crime. When victim, the partner may bring the civil proceedings, which are actions for compensation belonging to those directly harmed by the criminal offence. Nonetheless, this action is restricted to the partner bearer of the protected legal interest. As for the right of action, the validity of damage claims is limited by conditions interpreted in the light of peculiar theories. The partner, victim of business crimes, is thus lost in a heavy mist, from which he or she must be shown the way out by proposing legal changes addressing the real situation of the up-to-now forgotten victim.