REFORMING THE LAW OF OBLIGATIONS AND COMPANY LAW RÉFORMER LE DROIT DES OBLIGATIONS ET LE DROIT DES SOCIÉTÉS

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1 REFORMING THE LAW OF OBLIGATIONS AND COMPANY LAW STUDIES IN FRENCH AND GERMAN LAW RÉFORMER LE DROIT DES OBLIGATIONS ET LE DROIT DES SOCIÉTÉS ÉTUDES DE DROIT FRANÇAIS ET ALLEMAND

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3 COLLECTION TRANS EUROPE EXPERTS VOLUME 8 REFORMING THE LAW OF OBLIGATIONS AND COMPANY LAW STUDIES IN FRENCH AND GERMAN LAW RÉFORMER LE DROIT DES OBLIGATIONS ET LE DROIT DES SOCIÉTÉS ÉTUDES DE DROIT FRANÇAIS ET ALLEMAND Edited by / Sous la direction de Walter DORALT and / et Olivier DESHAYES Société de législation comparée 28 rue Saint Guillaume, Paris, France Tél : (33) Fax : (33) slc@legiscompare.com

4 Le Code de propriété intellectuelle n autorisant, aux termes de l article L , 2 et 3 a), d une part, que les «copies ou reproductions strictement réservées à l usage privé du copiste et non destinées à une utilisation collective» et, d autre part, que les analyses et les courtes citations dans un but d exemple et d illustration, «toute représentation ou reproduction intégrale ou partielle faite sans le consentement de l auteur ou de ses ayants droit ou ayants cause est illicite» (art. L ). Cette représentation ou reproduction, par quelque procédé que ce soit, constitue donc une contrefaçon sanctionnée par les articles L et suivants du Code de propriété intellectuelle. Société de législation comparée 2013 I.S.B.N I.S.S.N

5 Table of Contents / Table des matières Foreword Walter DORALT and Olivier DESHAYES 7 I LAW OF OBLIGATIONS LE DROIT DES OBLIGATIONS A. Reforming the Law of Obligations La réforme du droit des obligations The Reform of the Law of Obligations in France. Methods and Prospects Guillaume MEUNIER 15 Réforme du droit des contrats : l expérience allemande Reinhard ZIMMERMANN 25 B. Specific Issues of the Law of Obligations Questions choisies de droit des obligations Breach of Contract and Abusive Behavior La rupture abusive des contrats La rupture abusive Carole AUBERT de VINCELLES 49 Rupture abusive. A Few Comparative Remarks Philipp EICHENHOFER 63 Adaptation of Long Term Contracts L adaptation des contrats de longue durée Contrat Law: Adapting Long Term Contracts. Flexibility and Adaptation Mechanisms Employed by Contracting Parties Martine BEHAR-TOUCHAIS 69

6 6 REFORMING THE LAW OF OBLIGATIONS AND COMPANY LAW II COMPANY LAW LE DROIT DES SOCIÉTÉS A. Reforming Company Law La réforme du droit des sociétés Key Trends in French Company Law Reforms over the Last Decade Dorothée GALLOIS-COCHET and Marie CAFFIN-MOI 91 Comparative Remarks from a German Point of View Observations comparatives inspirées du droit allemand Legal Capital. Modernising the German GmbH Rainer KULMS 109 The Growing Importance of Corporate Governance and Capital Markets Law in Germany Rüdiger VEIL 113 Regulating Directors Duties, their Enforcement and the Business Judgment Rule Walter DORALT 119 B. Regulatory Competition in Company Law and Corporate Insolvency Law La concurrence normative en droit des sociétés et des entreprises en difficulté Company Mobility and Regulatory Competition in the European Union and under French Company Law Andra COTIGA 127 Concurrence normative et redressement d entreprise. L étude du cas Rodenstock Felix STEFFEK 145

7 FOREWORD Walter DORALT and Olivier DESHAYES It is a privilege to introduce this book. Moreover, it is for us an undeserved privilege, as our role has merely been to organise a conference in Hamburg as part of our work within a pre-existing international research group, directed by Professor Judith Rochfeld. But above all it is a pleasure to see the papers presented in this conference being published and thus shared with a wider audience in this bilingual volume of the Société de Législation Comparée (SLC). It seems to us that the pre-existing international research group alluded to above requires a brief introduction and explanation. A few years back, in 2009, five French colleagues had founded Trans-Europe Experts (TEE), a European network of law experts based in Paris. This step was motivated by a number of factors, amongst which was the observation that the landscape of law and law-making in Europe had undergone a gradual change. Normative developments seemed to take a different path from what experience might have suggested. An appreciation of the ever-increasing amount of legislation along with the time pressure with which it was (and is) often prepared also prompted the formation of the network, as did the recurring observation that sound comparative groundwork was missing. As co-presidents of TEE, Professors Bénédicte Fauvarque-Cosson and Judith Rochfeld thought it necessary correct these shortcomings and, with the support of TEE, gathered a group of other European legal research Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg. Professeur de droit privé, directeur du LEJEP (Laboratoire d études juridiques et politiques de l Université de Cergy-Pontoise, EA-4458), secrétaire général adjoint de TEE (Trans Europe Experts) : olivier.deshayes@u-cergy.fr

8 8 REFORMING THE LAW OF OBLIGATIONS AND COMPANY LAW institutions to team up and cooperate as a Groupe de Recherche Européen (GDRE). Its purpose is to strengthen links between the research institutions involved, based in France, Germany, Italy and Luxembourg, and to collectively address the challenges mentioned above. This initiative has received the generous support of the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), making this work possible. As for the substance, the GDRE aims at producing academic research and guidance for law and law-making in the wider context of the new normative environment in the European Union. The topics dealt with are European by nature, including important national developments. As a general theme, the GDRE addresses the new normative developments in Europe (Nouvelles normativités en Europe). As a part of this ambitious endeavour, a first and perhaps more modest step is to develop a better understanding of the differences shaping European national jurisdictions today. Thus, the GDRE intends to provide a forum in which researchers from different backgrounds may exchange ideas and can learn from each other in meetings and conferences, such as the conference held in Hamburg. More specifically, during its first year (2011) the group focused on optional instruments, having organised a conference in Paris in November 2011 dealing with the proposal of a European regulation on a Common European Sales Law (CESL). The editors of this book were present and still recall the lively exchange of ideas on that occasion. The contributions were then also published in a 2012 volume of the SLC series, along with a comparative annex featuring the texts of the draft CESL, its predecessors and texts with which a comparison of the draft seemed useful. 1 A second conference was held in March 2012 in Paris, this time on the broader topic of optional instruments in different areas of the law, held in connection with TEE s annual meeting. The research directed by Professors Bénédicte Fauvarque- Cosson and Martine Béhar-Touchais on the implementation of optional instruments in European private law was presented on this occasion. 2 The contributions gathered in this book were presented on November 1 st and 2 nd, 2012 at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg during the third meeting of the GDRE. They relate to French and German legal reforms in the field of the law of obligations, company law and corporate insolvency law. More widely, all the topics dealt with in this book can be seen in the context of the changing 1 O. DESHAYES (ed.), Le droit commun européen de la vente, examen de la proposition de règlement du 11 octobre 2011 (avec une table de concordance des textes), coll. «Trans Europe Expert», vol. 6, Paris, Société de législation comparée, B. FAUVARQUE-COSSON and M. BEHAR-TOUCHAIS, Mise en œuvre des instruments optionnels européens en droit privé, coll. «Trans Europe Expert», vol. 5, Paris, Société de législation comparée, 2012.

9 W. DORALT & O. DESHAYES : FOREWORD 9 landscape of law in the EU and against the background of comparative law and regulatory competition. National jurisdictions have been and are reacting to the changing normative environment in Europe and, as such, national reforms are often also a reaction to international trends or developments. The concepts advanced in these reforms are frequently motivated by a desire to provide a blue print or model for European reforms, be it in the context of the law of obligations, in company law or corporate insolvency law. This book by no means intends to give a broad overview of the topics mentioned above, let alone a comprehensive one, but rather wants to give an impression of certain aspects of reforms in Germany and France in a comparative perspective. It therefore hopes to contribute to a better mutual understanding. The contributions have been authored partially in English, partially in French. We hope that our readers will not find this to be too much of an obstacle. The choice of language for each contribution and the lack of uniformity may seem unusual at first sight, but it is not arbitrary: Some of the French contributions are written in English in order to allow for easier access and a wider readership among foreign readers, this occurring where seen as desirable by the editors. On the other hand, some of the contributions written by German authors are here published in French, because the insights presented in these papers seemed particularly interesting for readers in France. In this context, the editors are very grateful to Chloé Lignier for her linguistic support and for the translation of contributions into French, as they are to Michael Friedman for his support in brushing up the papers written in English. We hope this book will stand as a modest but useful contribution for readers interested in French and German law in a comparative perspective. Summer 2013

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