The “new” corporate regulation: expanding the scope of corporate acts

Abstract

The author suggests taking a broader view on corporate regulation. The following thesis is being put forward for a legal research: in addition to the traditional approach which limits the scope of corporate regulation by “internal” relations involving corporation, its shareholders, corporate bodies and employees, corporate regulation has to be approached in a broader sense, i.e., in the context of an “external” impact caused by a corporation on its relations with other persons: contractual counterparties, supply chains actors, contractors and clients, potential business partners, other representatives of the social environment where the corporation carries its activities. Starting with generalization of doctrinal views on the essence of nonstate regulation in private law (in part 1), the author then forms an approach towards a broad interpretation of corporate regulation as a type of nonstate regulation of private legal relations (in part 2). The article then considers the variety of forms in which corporate regulation is expressed, i.e., corporate acts (in part 3), and concludes with the statement of problem issues which arise in connection with the influence exerted by corporate regulation on private law relations (in part 4). A revision of traditional terminological base has been undertaken throughout the text. The research has shown that the legal dictionary of corporate law needs to be streamlined and brought to order. With an aim to improve the existing discordant terminology, the use of the following concise terms has been justified: “nonstate regulation”, “corporate regulation”, “corporate acts”.