股东知情权边界的利益衡量

The Interest Measurement of the Boundary of Shareholders'Right to Know

股东知情权的制度设计与行权边界勘定,主要面临着对公司信息利益之间的异质利益衡量。从一般原则来说应当以股东知情为核心利益,在首位保护股东知情权的前提下,再考虑保护公司信息利益的必要性,界定前者的权利边界。欲协调与权衡这两种利益间的冲突,在立法层面要处理好股东能否查阅会计凭证、原股东能否行使查阅权、股东知情权被公司意思限制的合理边界等三个焦点问题,并在此基础上妥当适用恰当的利益衡量方法。这就要求裁判者在司法权衡过程中要处理好三个关键节点,一是对行权股东课以查阅具体目的的说明义务,对公司课以股东“不正当目的”的证明责任;二是前股东“提出初步证据”的证明标准达到引起一般人怀疑即可;三是对于股东获悉信息的保密义务,要设置有效的事前预防措施。

Designing the regime for shareholders'right to know and ascertaining its exercise boundary are confronted with the balance between discrepant rights and company information interests.In principle,shareholders'right to know should be placed as a core interest.Under the condition of protecting shareholders'right to know as a priority,consideration of the necessity to protect company information rights comes in second place and the boundary line of the former should be ascertained.To coordinate and balance conflict of these two interests,the following three key issues should be dealt with properly and suitable balance of interest approaches should be adopted appropriately.The legislative process is as follows:1)whether shareholders could inspect preliminary records of account;2)whether non-incumbent shareholders could exercise inspection rights;3)and the proper boundary of constraining shareholder inspection rights by company.To this end,adjudicators should handle three key points properly in the judicial process.Firstly,we should impose on shareholders obligations of indicating its specific purpose for exercising inspection rights and on companies burden of proof for demonstrating improper purpose.Secondly,the proof standard of the former shareholder's“preliminary evidence”is enough to cause general suspicion.Thirdly,effective precaution measures should be taken in advance in relation to confidential obligations on the part of shareholders who have access to information.