In the French-Belgian legal tradition the technique of the legal person was restricted during the 19th century to entities with a ‘for profit’ nature, i.e. entities geared towards the distribution of the profits towards members. The distrust of non-profit entities should partially be understood as a legacy of the French Revolution and the cultural, political and social struggles of the 19th century (a distrust of intermediary bodies, a hostile attitude towards religious organizations, guilds and trade unions;) (J. Vananroye, Morele wezens en wetsontduikende monniken, opening address at the Belgian Supreme Court on the occasion of the opening of the judicial year 2012, Antwerp, Intersentia, 2012, 2, nr. 2).
A present-day justification of a positive bias towards ‘for profit’ entities would be this: the legal obligation to distribute any profits causes the shares of the shareholders to be a valuable bundle of rights; this makes the shares into an economically valuable asset which can be seized by the personal creditors of the shareholders; and this in turn mitigates the harmful effects of asset partitioning for these personal creditors. Continue reading “The relevance of rules constraining or enjoining distributions in organizational law”
Bram Van Baelen behaalde met grote onderscheiding zijn Master in de Rechten aan de Faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid van de KU Leuven (bachelor 2013-2015; master 2015-2017, major: Economisch recht/ minor: Publiekrecht) en werkt sindsdien als assistent aan het Jan Ronse Instituut voor Vennootschaps- en Financieel Recht waar hij een proefschrift voorbereidt. Tijdens het schrijven van de meesterproef was hij voorzitter van LOKO, de Leuvense Overkoepelende Kringenorganisatie.