1, French commercial legislation
A bourgeois republic was established after the French Revolution. In order to consolidate and promote the development of capitalist economy, 1804 formulated the French Civil Code, and 1807 formulated the French Commercial Code. The French Commercial Code is the first commercial code in modern times, which marks the formation of modern unified commercial law and initiates the separation of civil and commercial affairs in civil law system.
The French Commercial Code consists of four parts and 648 articles. The first part of the general rules is divided into nine chapters, including: merchants, commercial account books, companies, commercial exchanges and ticket brokers, bank discipline, transactions, bills of exchange, promissory notes and prescription; The second chapter is maritime business, which is divided into fourteen chapters, including: ships, ship mortgages, shipowners, captains, seafarers, ship service contracts, bills of lading, chartering contracts, ship mortgage loans, marine insurance, average, abandonment, prescription and refusal to sue; The third part is bankruptcy, which is divided into three chapters, including: decentralization of family assets, bankruptcy and restoration of rights; The fourth part, commercial court, stipulates the establishment, jurisdiction, litigation mode and arbitration procedure of commercial court.
The French Commercial Code is the first commercial code in the world, which marks the formation of modern commercial law and has epoch-making significance. It adopts the legislative principle of objectivism (commercial behaviorism), constructs the code based on commercial behavior, breaks through the tradition that commercial law only applies to businessmen since the Middle Ages, and embodies the concept of equality and freedom since the Great Revolution, thus expanding commercial law into commercial behavior law. At the same time, the promulgation of the French Commercial Code set a legislative precedent for the separation of civil and commercial affairs in the civil law system. Of course, this code also has some shortcomings. For example, the Code includes the content of procedural law, and the norms for land merchants are weaker than those for maritime merchants, and there are too few norms for joint stock limited companies (only 13).
In addition to the commercial code, there are some special commercial laws in France, such as 1867 commercial company law, 1885 futures trading law, 19 17 workers' participation in joint-stock companies law and19 law.
The French Commercial Code has been implemented for nearly 200 years, and it is still applicable after many revisions and supplements. Later, under the influence of this code, all countries, especially European countries, have formulated their own commercial codes.
2. German commercial legislation
187 1 before the reunification of Germany, Germany was in a state of feudal separatism for a long time, and only Prussia formulated written commercial laws and regulations. Later, in 186 1 year, Germany enacted the German General Commercial Law (known as the "Old Commercial Law" in history), which was adopted by most states. The code is divided into five parts, the first part is merchant identity, the second part is commercial company, the third part is partnership enterprise, the fourth part is merchant behavior, and the fifth part is maritime commerce. 187 1 after the reunification of Germany, the code was implemented throughout the German Empire with little modification. Later, in order to coordinate with the contents of the Civil Code, the German Commercial Code was formulated with 1897 through several revisions to the old Commercial Code, and it came into effect at the same time as the German Civil Code on 1900 1.
The German Commercial Code is divided into four parts and 905 articles. The first part is the merchant, which is divided into eight chapters, including: merchant, commercial registration, commercial name, commercial account book, manager's right and agency, commercial users, agents and commercial intermediaries; The second part, commercial company and dormant partnership, is divided into five chapters, including: unlimited company, joint-stock company, joint-stock company and dormant partnership; The third part is commercial behavior, which is divided into seven chapters, including: general rules. Commercial trade, brokerage business, contract transportation, warehousing business, transportation business and railway transportation; The fourth part is maritime business, which is divided into eleven chapters, including: general principles, shipowner and ship ownership, captain, cargo transportation, passenger transportation, risk lending, general average, maritime salvage, ship creditors, marine insurance and prescription.
German commercial code is different from French commercial code. It adopts the legislative principle of subjectivism (commercial subjectivism) and constructs the code based on businessmen. At the same time, its content is more complete than the French commercial code, and it is a relatively mature commercial code. Later, influenced by this code, Austria, Thailand and Turkey also adopted this legislative model to formulate their own commercial codes.
The German Commercial Code has been partially revised and still applies today. The major amendments are 1937 joint-stock companies and joint-stock companies law and 1965 joint-stock law. In addition, in addition to the commercial code, Germany has also promulgated many separate commercial codes to make up for the shortcomings of the commercial code, including the limited liability company law of 1892.