合规义务进入董事义务体系的公司法路径

The Company Law Path of Compliance Obligations Incorporated into the Directors’Obligation System

在董事义务体系中纳入合规义务,有效发挥合规义务对董事及公司行为的指引和校正作用,是《公司法》新一轮修改亟须完成的一项重要任务。合规义务进入董事义务的可能路径有二:一是借由信义义务引入,二是独立于信义义务。路径一可以通过扩张现有"忠实+勤勉"的二元信义义务结构实现,也可以通过解释扩大忠实义务或勤勉义务的内涵实现。合规义务和信义义务在履行逻辑上难以兼容,中国语境下使用囊括了合规义务的信义义务对董事进行问责亦有明显缺陷。合规义务与信义义务在法理上存在重要差异,合规义务独立于信义义务有助于发挥合规义务的回应性特质和守法内化功能,并为问责机制设计预留灵活空间。我国应当确立董事合规义务相对于信义义务的独立性,在此基础上为合规义务进入董事义务体系进行多层次、体系化的制度设计,并通过明晰的规则进行制度表达。

Incorporating compliance obligations into the system of directors’obligations and effectively giving play to the role of compliance obligations in guiding and correcting directors and the company’s behavior is an important task that needs to be completed in the new amendment to the Company Law.There are two possible paths for the compliance obligations to be incorporated into directors’obligations:one is to introduce fiduciary obligations,and the other is to be independent of fiduciary obligations.Path one can be realized by expanding the existing dual fiduciary duty structure of"loyalty+diligence",or by expanding the connotation of the duty of loyalty or the duty of diligence.Compliance obligations and fiduciary obligations are difficult to be compatible in fulfillment.The use of fiduciary obligations that include compliance obligations to hold directors accountable in the Chinese context also has obvious defects.There are important legal differences between compliance obligations and fiduciary obligations.The independence of compliance obligations from fiduciary obligations can help to give play to the responsive nature of compliance obligations and the function of internalizing the law,and to reserve space for flexibility in the design of accountability mechanisms.China should establish the independence of directors’compliance obligations from fiduciary obligations,and carry out a multi-level and systematic system design for compliance obligations incorporated into the director’s obligation system on this basis,and express the system through clear rules.