有限责任的性质与功能

The Nature and Function of Limited Liability

有限责任是民商法中的重要制度,但对其性质和功能的认知仍然需要在三个维度上加以拓展。有限责任虽然主要出现在商法领域,但是它并不是民事责任在商事领域的简单应用,也并非民事责任的典型形态,而是一种事前约定的风险承担机制;从产生上看,有限责任属于当事人对自己投资风险和行为责任进行预先限制的制度,虽然它更多的是以法定责任的面目出现,但其功能上更接近约定责任,有限责任制度的发展是约定机制逐渐法定化和标准化的过程,体现了强制性规范和任意性规范的精细分层;有限责任是组织法的一部分,是资产分割和责任分割的一种方式,有限责任制度功能的发挥依赖法定规则和约定规则共同发挥作用。

Limited liability is an important system in civil and commercial law,but the cognition of its nature and function still needs to be expanded in three dimensions.Firstly,although limited liability mainly appears in the field of commercial law,it is not a simple application of civil liability in the field of commercial law,nor a typical form of civil liability,but a risk‑taking mechanism agreed in advance.Secondly,from the perspective of origin,limited liability belongs to the system in which the parties prelimit their investment risk and behavior liability.Although limited liability appears more as legal liability,it is functionally closer to contractual liability.The development of limited liability system is a process of gradual legalization and standardization from the contractual mechanism.It embodies the fine stratification of mandatory norms and enabling norms.Finally,limited liability is a part of organizational law and a way of asset partition and liability Division.The function of limited liability system depends on the joint role of legal rules and contractual rules.