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Article Contractual Freedom Within Corporate Law and its Restrictions
Authors LINA DOROSHENKO
Name of magazine Legal journal «Law of Ukraine» (Ukrainian version)
Issue 1 / 2023
Pages 99 - 121
Annotation

The development of legislation regulating corporate relations indicates the liberalization of legal regulation of corporate relations including contractual freedom within corporate law.

The purpose of the article is to determine the essence of contractual freedom within corporate law, to clarify specific features of the manifestation of contractual freedom regulation of corporate relations and its restrictions in order to improve the mechanism of regulation of contractual relations within corporate law of Ukraine.

It has been established that contractual freedom within corporate law involves both the right of members of corporate relations to conclude contracts, where the participants (shareholders) of the company undertake to exercise their rights and powers in a certain way or refrain from exercising them, as well as the right to conclude other contracts aimed at acquiring or terminating corporate rights.

It has been determined that contractual freedom within corporate law means the possibility of members of corporate legal relations to conclude a contract, to choose counterparties under the contract and the type of contract, to determine the terms of the contract, their rights and obligations (content of the contract), taking into account the requirements established by law, constituent documents and internal corporate acts.

The manifestation or realization of the principle of contractual freedom within corporate law at the stage of determining the terms of the contract is preconditioned by the following factors: 1) the contract may include such conditions, when reaching an agreement under the contract is allowed by law (the corporate contract may provide the conditions or the procedure for determining the conditions, when the member has the right or is obliged to buy or sell a share in the charter capital (its part), as well as to determine cases when such a right or obligation arises, etc.); 2) the parties to the contract may depart from the provisions of the acts of corporate legislation and regulate their relations at their own discretion (the overriding right of a member of the company is not applied, if it is provided by a corporate contract, whose party is such a member, etc.); 3) the parties have the right to regulate their relations in the contract provided by the acts of corporate legislation, which are not regulated by these acts.

It has been proved that restrictions of contractual freedom within corporate law are established by law, constituent documents and internal corporate acts. The parties to the contract within corporate law cannot deviate from the provisions of corporate legislation acts, if these acts directly state about this (the law directly states that a corporate contractestablishing the obligation of shareholders to ensure voting in accordance with the instructions of the corporate bodies of the company is null and void, etc.), as well as in case that the obligatory nature of the provisions of corporate legislation acts for the parties follows from their content or from the essence of the relationship between the parties (the contract cannot provide the change in the size of the charter capital of a limited liability company, approval of the monetary value of a member’s non-monetary contribution, etc.).

 

Keywords contractual freedom; commercial contracts; European integration; corporate law; corporate relations; corporate contract; shareholders’ agreements; judicial protection; restrictions on contractual freedom
References

Bibliography

 

Authored books

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Edited books

3. Harahonych O, Hrudnytska S, Doroshenko L (ed), Korporatyvne pravo (ArtEk 2018) (in Ukrainian).

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Journal articles

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Theses

20. Bieliaieva A, ‘Pryntsyp svobody dohovoru v pravovomu rehuliuvanni zovnishnoekonomichnoho kontraktu’ (dys kand yuryd nauk, 2005) (in Ukrainian).

21. Nikolenko M, ‘Hospodarsko-pravove rehuliuvannia korporatyvnykh dohovoriv’ (dys kand yuryd nauk, 2021) 212 (in Ukrainian).

22. Pohribnyi S, ‘Mekhanizm ta pryntsypy rehuliuvannia dohovirnykh vidnosyn u tsyvilnomu pravi Ukrainy’ (dys dokt yuryd nauk, 2009) (in Ukrainian).

23. Shtym T, ‘Aktsionerni uhody, pravochyny iz zainteresovanistiu ta znachni pravochyny v aktsionernykh tovarystvakh’ (dys kand yuryd nauk, 2014) (in Ukrainian).

 

Conference papers

24. Kalaur I, ‘Svoboda dohovoru yak proiav dyspozytyvnosti v rehuliuvanni korporatyvnykh vidnosyn’ v Korporatyvni pravochyny: materialy Vseukrainskoi naukovo-praktychnoi konferentsii (Prykarpatskyi natsionalnyi universytet imeni Vasylia Stefanyka 2013) (in Ukrainian).

 

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