公司法定代表人的角色、制度渊源及其完善

The Legal Representative: Its Role, System Origin and Improvement

我国现行公司法中法定代表人的角色定位,因受继受法的影响,以及制定时的功利主义取向,忽视公司的人格性和团体性,采纳股东会中心主义,加之权责规定不协调,不仅导致存在规则上的冲突,还导致现代公司治理制衡功能无法落实,并引起了司法困境。要发挥法定代表人制度科学的公司治理功能,需要在协调民法典相关规定的基础上,弱化法定代表人的法定性,实行差异化设计,明确法定代表人的信义义务,以促进公司在市场经济改革中的发展为导向,构建体现自由和效率价值的法定代表人规则。尤其是此次公司法修订时对于相关条款的设计,要基于科学性需要,在其现实性上依据市场需求对法定代表人制度进行改革,以实现规范体系主义,强化其对现实的回应。

The legal representative of a company in China,internally as an agent to express its intent,is a constituent element of the company’s internal governance,and assumes an important function of representing the company externally in civil and commercial legal acts.However,its institutional defects have called for reflection and reform.Its role assigned in the current Company Law,being subject to the utilitarian orientation,ignores its personality and group nature.Taking the shareholders meeting as the center,its powers and responsibilities don’t match,which leads to conflicts of rules and chaotic judicial practice,and to the failure to put into practice of checks and balances in modern corporate governance.To fully fulfill its corporate governance function,its institutional design shall weaken its legality on the basis of coordinating the relevant provisions in the Civil Code of PRC,and shall be differentiated according to the type of company.Its institutional rules shall be flexible and efficient,clarifying its fiduciary duty so as to be oriented toward the development of the company in market economy reform.Especially after the promulgation of the Civil Code,the relevant reforms of its institution through the Company Law should be realistic and scientific,meeting the needs of the market so as to achieve standardized practice.