{"title":"Binding Capital to Free Purpose: Steward Ownership in Germany","authors":"Anne Sanders","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.4144623","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract 622This paper discusses steward ownership, a concept of business ownership aiming at long-term and purpose-oriented entrepreneurship developed in Germany. Steward ownership can be seen in the context of the current worldwide discussion of corporate purpose and legal innovations like the US-American benefit corporation and the French société a mission has developed a unique approach. The concept is currently put into practice using German company law and the law of foundations. However, in the coalition agreement of the current German government, a new legal form is envisaged to facilitate the founding of steward-owned businesses. The paper presents the concepts and discusses a draft law developed as food for thought for the legislature.","PeriodicalId":54052,"journal":{"name":"European Company and Financial Law Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Company and Financial Law Review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4144623","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"LAW","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
Abstract 622This paper discusses steward ownership, a concept of business ownership aiming at long-term and purpose-oriented entrepreneurship developed in Germany. Steward ownership can be seen in the context of the current worldwide discussion of corporate purpose and legal innovations like the US-American benefit corporation and the French société a mission has developed a unique approach. The concept is currently put into practice using German company law and the law of foundations. However, in the coalition agreement of the current German government, a new legal form is envisaged to facilitate the founding of steward-owned businesses. The paper presents the concepts and discusses a draft law developed as food for thought for the legislature.
期刊介绍:
In legislation and in case law, European law has become a steadily more dominant factor in determining national European company laws. The “European Company”, the forthcoming “European Private Company” as well as the Regulation on the Application of International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS Regulation”) have accelerated this development even more. The discussion, however, is still mired in individual nations. This is true for the academic field and – even still – for many practitioners. The journal intends to overcome this handicap by sparking a debate across Europe on drafting and application of European company law. It integrates the European company law component previously published as part of the Zeitschrift für Unternehmens- und Gesellschaftsrecht (ZGR), on of the leading German law reviews specialized in the field of company and capital market law. It aims at universities, law makers on both the European and national levels, courts, lawyers, banks and other financial service institutions, in house counsels, accountants and notaries who draft or work with European company law. The journal focuses on all areas of European company law and the financing of companies and business entities. This includes the law of capital markets as well as the law of accounting and auditing and company law related issues of insolvency law. Finally it serves as a platform for the discussion of theoretical questions such as the economic analysis of company law. It consists of articles and case notes on both decisions of the European courts as well as of national courts insofar as they have implications on European company law.