The Study Of Inquiry Right Of Shareholders

As an important content of the right of know, the inquiry right of shareholders is of essential significance to the safety guarantee of shares of shareholders. The inquiry right has been developed rapidly in the civil law system since been applied in the company management. The modern corporate governance system started after the reform and opening-up, while the pattern of ownership has been existing in the process, which considers the public ownership as the main part. More than a few listed companies with strong administrative color and background exist in China, and the governance pattern is really administrative. In the society with interpersonal relationships, private enterprises which lack the modern corporate governance experience have been faced with various problems in the aspect of protecting the right of middle and small sized shareholders.However, in the existing Corporation Law of our country, there is only principled and declaring stipulation of inquiry right, but there is no specific stipulation about the subject of right, subject of duty, exercise style as well as the scope of inquiring. Consequently, the inquiry right could not be protected and exercised in juridical practice and often be ignored as an unpractical right. The article started from the origin and development of inquiry right, and made a comparison among the theory, legislation and juridical practice of inquiry right in Germany, Japan and France, and provided several suggestions to improve the inquiry right of shareholders in China in the aspects of legislation and right remedy. And it expected to promote the further improvement of the modern corporate governance system and the reform of state-owned enterprises so as to promote the healthy economic development by means of the study and research of inquiry right.This article analyzed the inquiry right of shareholders in four parts. The first part stated the theory outline of inquiry right theory, including the current situation of legislation in China. The second part discussed the subject of right and subject of duty of inquiry right and made a contrast explanation between the stipulation of inquiry right in our country and other countries and provided some suggestions. The third part analyzed the restriction of the scope of inquiry right as well as its exercise style and process in other countries, and defined the inquiry right in the shareholders’ meeting only. The forth part discussed the juridical remedy of inquiry right, which means how to conduct remedy in proper ways and process when faced with trouble in exercising the inquiry right. And provided some suggestions of how to improve the precedent judgment system with Chinese characteristics by the means of remedy. The conclusion briefly summarized the whole article. In the design of future institution, the normalization of inquiry right should be promoted to transform freely between static rules and dynamic rules, which can help it to cooperate well with the shareholder’s rights and thus play the due value of inquiry right better.