Sustainability, the common good and the managerial discretion - a cross-legal form consideration (working title)

The dissertation project examines and compares the possibilities of managing directors of different corporate forms to take sustainability and public welfare concerns into account in their business decisions.

The topic touches on questions regarding the relationship between the pursuit of private profit and the common good, the raison d'être of private special-purpose associations and the relationship between the shareholders and the management. In stock corporation law, it has therefore rightly been one of the most discussed issues for more than a century. There are still two opposing blocks of opinion: One side believes that the management board is entitled to weigh up the interests of shareholders, employees and the general public. The opposing view is that the Management Board is only obliged to act in the interests of shareholders' returns. A final clarification is not in sight. However, while the topic has at least been prominently highlighted in stock corporation law, it has so far led a shadowy existence in the law of limited liability companies and, above all, in the law of partnerships.

This secondary role no longer does justice to reality. In business life, companies of different legal forms compete with each other. Not least in view of the considerable increase in importance that the topic of “sustainability” has experienced in recent years, it is high time to look at the parameters on which the managers of a limited liability company or partnership must base their actions. Under what conditions and to what extent can they also pursue public welfare objectives? To answer this question, the dissertation project takes a cross-legal form perspective and looks for similarities and differences. In this way, the findings of the debate on stock corporation law can also be utilized and further developed for other legal forms. The aim is to identify a holistic system of company and legal form-specific characteristics that determine the scope of a managing director.