본고에서 필자는 회사법의 당면과제를 다루고 있다. 첫째는 회사법을 독립된 법률로 하는 문제이다. 기존의 상법전에서 회사법을 떼어내 독립된 법률로 할 경우 예상되는 문제점들을 서술하였다. 둘째는 주식회사의 법형태가 압도적으로 다수를 점하는 국내 회사의 현실 속에서 인적 주식회사의 문제를 다루었다. 필자는 지난 60년간 우리 경제의 극심한 변화를 고려하여 특히 주식회사법 분야에서는 기본적인 변화가 불가피하다고 주장한다. 즉 과거 대규모 공개회사 위주의 법제에서 오히려 방향을 바꾸어 우리 경제에서 가장 다수를 점하고 있는 폐쇄형 주식회사를 원칙적인 모습으로 한 후 공개회사나 상장사에 대해서는 추가로 특례규정을 두는 방식에 비중을 두어야 한다고 주장한다. 셋째는 경제민주화법안과 경영권 방어법제간의 갈등을 다루었다. 이에 있어서 이중대표소송제도를 판례법으로 도입하는 것과 복수의결권 주식제도의 도입을 주장하고 있다. 넷째는 기타의 문제들로서 인공지능이 회사법에 미칠 영향 나아가 이사의 신인의무법의 발전방향에 대하여 언급하였다.
끝으로 필자는 경제기반의 변화에 즉응하는 회사법제의 구축은 난제중의 난제이지만 서두르지 말고 꾸준히 비교법적으로 접근하는 자세가 필요하다고 주장하고 있다.
Nowadays we have so many opportunities to watch the phenomina surrounding technical innovations, like artificial intelligence or blockchain etc., so that we cannot escape from the daily unstableness. Not a few people could also experience some feelings of isolation, due to the newly upcoming expressions like robo-adviser, robo-directors, electronic person and DAO. In this article the author tried to show some tasks out of corporate law at present time in Korea.
He explores, at first, the possibilities to introduce a separate statute specialized for company law in Korea, where the traditional Commercial Code has so far maintained a stable position. It was enacted in 1962 and has been implemented since 1963. The U.S. State of Delaware has its 'General Corporation Law' and U.K. has also its separate 'Companies Act', which was revised on a large scale in 2006. The author offered a comparative review on various cases of legislation, which took place in some civilized countries like U.S., Germany and Japan.
The second task was to solve the problem of 'personalized stock corporation (private companies)', which was triggered predominantly by the overwhelming number of stock corporations in korean economy. The legal form of stock corporation enjoys there an extreme popularity in comparison to the other legal forms. It now takes up over 90% out of all registered companies, which have been established according to the Korean Commercial Code. It is clear that the 'personalized' stock corporation is a stock corporation in legal meaning, but its substance is nothing more than a partnership. The author says that a separate or classified legislation is needed according to the size of the company.
The third assignment of this article was to resolve the confrontation between the bills on economic democratization and those on defense of management right. The author suggested that the institute of double derivative suit should be implemented also in Korea via common law by accumulating relevant cases and the dual-class-stock system needs to be introduced also in Korea, like any other civilized countries. The fourth task was to promote the development of the law of fiduciary duties in Korea.
The author emphasizes the importance of procedural aspect for court decisions. At last he made some possible mentions on the interplay between artificial intelligence and company law. Due to its rapid technological development, nobody denies nowadays that artificial intelligence can enter corporate boardroom in near future. The author concluded that it is necessary for corporate lawyers in Korea to take steady steps to perform the above-mentioned assignments.