Digitalization of Institutions of Corporate Law: Current Trends and Future Prospects

Vasiliy Andreevich Laptev,Daria Rinatovna Feyzrakhmanova

doi:10.3390/laws10040093

Vasiliy Andreevich Laptev, Daria Rinatovna Feyzrakhmanova

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10040093

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Journal: Laws	Publication Date: Dec 2, 2021
Citations: 3	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Kutafin Moscow State Law University

Abstract

Digital technologies have been integrated into all aspects of public life, including politics, law, finance, business, education, science, and society. As a result of the use of digital technologies by various subjects, a transformation has occurred of the economic relations existing in society, including corporate relations. This study analyzes the impact of digitalization on individual institutions of corporate law. The authors investigate the following aspects of the digitalization of corporate law: (1) digital legal personality of the corporation (online registration (e-residency) of corporations and the digital footprint that companies leave in public registers); (2) digital corporate governance; and (3) digital (network or decentralized) autonomous organizations. The purpose of this research is to identify trends and directions of transformation of individual institutions of corporate law in a digital society. The authors conclude that the digitalization of institutions of corporate law will result in: (1) the reinterpretation of certain concepts of corporate law, such as corporation and corporate governance; (2) the improvement of the legal mechanisms of corporate governance following the introduction of AI into the collegial executive bodies of corporations; (3) the digitalization of corporate assets; and (4) the emergence of new subjects of corporate and other relevant relations.

Highlights

The development of information technologies and their implementation into the daily life of modern individuals have marked the transition to an information society, digital economy and digitalization of different aspects of public life
According to Oleg Gutnikov, this concept includes the adoption of digital technologies in corporate governance, the creation of novel types of digital legal entities and their online registration, the digitization of charters of commercial corporations and their inclusion in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities of Russia (Gutnikov and Sinitsyn 2019), and the tokenization of corporate assets (Gutnikov 2020)
We propose to define the concept of corporate governance as an umbrella term that covers several related phenomena, including: the establishment in a corporation of the system of governing bodies; the process of identifying and regulating the main areas of activities of a corporation, determining goals of these activities and methods for their achievement, as well as measures aimed at ensuring control over them; a set of legal relations arising between the governing bodies of a corporation, its participants and other interested parties

Summary

Introduction

The development of information technologies and their implementation into the daily life of modern individuals have marked the transition to an information society, digital economy and digitalization of different aspects of public life. Digitalization sweeping through the various sectors of public life currently represents one of the most popular research topics or, as some scholars refer to it, a megatrend (Vaypan 2017). Digital technologies have been integrated into all aspects of public life, including politics, law, finance, business, education, science. Digitalization exerts an even greater impact on the economy, which should prompt the State, represented by its legislative and executive bodies, to take timely action to ensure the legal regulation of diverse aspects of the digital economy. There are different opinions among scholars concerning which phenomena are encompassed by the digitalization of modern corporate law. According to Oleg Gutnikov, this concept includes the adoption of digital technologies in corporate governance, the creation of novel types of digital legal entities and their online registration, the digitization of charters of commercial corporations and their inclusion in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities of Russia (Gutnikov and Sinitsyn 2019), and the tokenization of corporate assets (Gutnikov 2020)

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