The Draft Turkish Commercial Code and Corporate Governance

Author(s):  
Gül Okutan Nilsson
Author(s):  
Gülşah Atağan

Corporate governance and accountability are getting more and more important both for world and Turkish economies thanks to increasing competitiveness conditions among companies. Applications of corporate governance principles can show differences from country to country. In Turkey, The Capital Markets Board issued corporate governance principles in 2003 to improve the corporate governance environment and integrate the Turkish capital market with global financial markets. The board has also adopted these principles in 2005 and made them final. The new Turkish Commercial Code is based on corporate governance principles. The new Turkish Commercial Code constitutes the legal infrastructure for corporate governance practices.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 999-1014
Author(s):  
Kohei Miyamoto

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to trace a legal evolution of the monitoring board and to reveal what brought the evolution and what is expected to emerge. The paper points to unique complementarities in Japanese corporate governance institutions and norms which will affect how the monitoring board performs its functions. Design/Methodology/Approach Analysis is based on texts on corporate governance legislations in Japan from the revision of Commercial Code in 1950 to the revision of Companies Act in 2014. Other sources include Tokyo Stock Exchange regulations, White Paper on Corporate Governance and other academic literatures on Japanese corporate governance. Findings Changes of non-legal institutions and norms in Japanese corporate governance necessitated legal reforms toward the monitoring board. Persisting institutions and norms, in particular lifetime employment, influences how the monitoring board performs its functions in Japan. Originality/Value This paper explains how the evolution of the monitoring board in Japan emerged and what will cause different expected functions of the monitoring board in Japan and other jurisdictions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (15) ◽  
pp. 520-540
Author(s):  
Gökhan GÜNCAN

Abolished Commercial Code No. 6762 art. 137 limited the entitlement of commercial companies to the “subject of activity” included in the company's articles of association. Transactions exceeding the scope of operation written in the company's articles of association were deemed to be ultra vires transactions and were deemed null and void. Since the transactions that were deemed null and void were not available in the legal world, it was not possible to make them valid again. Because, a legal transaction that does not exist is invalid from the very beginning; even if the interests of all parties require it, it is not possible to validate the transaction with approval or authorization. Therefore, since transactions outside the scope of business of commercial companies were also considered null and void, there was no approval or ratification procedure that could make them valid. The only way to carry out the aforementioned transaction in a valid manner was to change the articles of association, regulate the company's field of activity to include the aforementioned transaction, and re-do the transaction from the beginning. In the Turkish Commercial Code no. 6102 art. 125 provision emphasized that commercial companies have legal personality, as in article 137 of the abolished Commercial Code no. 6762. However, unlike the abolished one, by eliminating the ultra vires principle, which is a limit to the competence of commercial companies. It has been widely accepted in the meaning of Turkish Civil Code art. 48. This issue was also included in the Turkish Commercial Code no:6102 art. 125 justification, and it was stated that the ultravires principle was abolished. Therefore, it is understood that the ultravires principle was abandoned as a result of the conscious choice of the Lawgiver. The subject of business is no longer a limiting element of the legal capacity of commercial companies. Despite this, the subject of business still maintains its importance for trading companies. Turkish Commercial Code no:6102 art. 213, which regulates the mandatory elements of the articles of association of commercial companies, in the provisions of 339 and 5 76, the subject of activity continues to maintain its place as a mandatory element that should be included in the articles of association. In the aforementioned provisions, among the mandatory elements to be included in the articles of association, as a common expression in the aforementioned company types, the phrase "business subject in a specified and defined manner" is used. The subject of operation is also in the Turkish Commercial Code no. 6102 art. 233 and in the provisions of art. 371, it remains as a factor limiting the representation authority of those authorized to represent the company. When these provisions are evaluated, it is understood that although the ultra vires principle has been abandoned in terms of the competence of commercial companies, the principle continues to be preserved in terms of representation. In the study, the provisions of abolished Commercial Code no:6762 art. 137, which limits the license of commercial companies to the subject of activity and art. 128, which defines the license in the broadest sense, were determined as the starting point, and the provisions regulating the authority of representation of commercial companies were examined. Thus, the effects of the ultra vires principle on the competence and representation of commercial companies have been comparatively examined within the framework of the abolished Commercial Code No. 6762 and the current Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Sıtkı Anlam Altay

Turkish Joint Stock Corporations Law is based upon Swiss Law. Turkish Commercial Code of 2012 reflects a pure reception of the rules regarding the representation of the company from Swiss Law. However in 2014, Turkish Law has confronted the enforcement of Art. 371/7 TCC, which enables restrictions on the representation authority in terms of the material and monetary scope of the transaction. This study aims to bring a critical view of this regulation and to introduce a draft for a well-directed regulation with respect to restrictions related to power of representation.


Author(s):  
Ekşi Nuray

This chapter explores Turkish perspectives on the Hague Principles. The content of Turkish Private International Law is highly comprehensive. In addition to choice of law and international procedural law, it also covers nationality law, as well as the law on foreign nationals. Private international law rules and issues regarding international procedural law are codified in Law No 5718 on Private International Law and Procedural Law (PILA), which has been in force since 2007. Besides the PILA, the Turkish Commercial Code contains conflict of laws rules regarding bills of exchange, checks, and promissory notes. According to Article 1(2) PILA, the application of international treaties ratified by Turkey takes priority over the application of PIL rules. Consequently, in each case, the court, before taking into account PILA’s Articles, has to determine whether any international treaty exists regarding international commercial contracts. If an international treaty exists, then it takes priority unless otherwise expressed in the treaty itself. For the time being, the Turkish Parliament has no intention to revise the PILA and supplement it with the Hague Principles.


Author(s):  
Çetin Arslan ◽  
Didar Özdemir

The Turkish Penal Code (TPC) no.5237 embodies “the reveal of confidential business information and documents” as a crime. However, neither article 6 of the TPC titled “definitions” nor the legal justification of the article contains the definition of the confidential business information or commercial secret. The abrogated Turkish Commercial Code no.6762 disposes the reveal of this kind of information as an act of unfair competition. In a similar vein, the current Turkish Commercial Code no.6102 assumes the illegal acquisition and the reveal of business secrets as acts of unfair competition and subjects them to criminal sanction. Also the article 562 of the TCC no.6102 disposes that if the auditors reveal the confidential business information of the auditee company, they are punished according to the article 239 of the TPC. The Proposal of Code on Business, Bank and Client Secrets refers to the article 239 of the TPC in case of the violation of the confidentiality obligation. Finally, the Act of the Protection of Competition no.4054 brings a confidentiality obligation for the Council and staff members. In this study, we will try to explain first the notion of confidential business information or commercial secret, then the penal norms about the confidential business information and the confidentiality obligation and last, the elements of the crime disposed in the article 239 of the TPC which is referred by most of the other penal norms in this respect.


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