公司法未修訂前,董事依公司法第八條為公司之當然負責人,而董事係指經法定程序選任之法律上董事(de jure director),此點並無爭議。然而在目前公司實務上普遍存在並非董事而享有與董事相同之經營實權之人,若使其逸脫於董事責任體系之外,將導致公司治理上嚴重的規範缺口。 我國學界對增訂實質董事規範之呼聲已久,在經過長久的研究討論後,終於在2012年初,修正通過增訂公司法第8條第3項:「公開發行股票之公司之非董事,而實質上執行董事業務或實質控制公司之人事、財務或業務經營而實質指揮董事執行業務者,與本法董事同負民事、刑事及行政罰之責任。但政府為發展經濟、促進社會安定或其他增進公共利益等情形,對政府指派之董事所為之指揮,不適用之。」正式引進實質董事之規範,乃公司法制上之一大里程碑。惟於經過法院及主管機關累積足夠案例之前,關於實質董事該如何認定、適用以及其應負之責任範圍為何,尚待釐清,對此,英國法上對於影子董事(shadow director)及事實上董事(de facto director)長久以來累積之判決與最新實定法之規範,應可提供一定啟示。 故本文擬從公司治理與代理問題之角度出發,藉由解析英國2006年公司法之相關規定與英國法院重要判決,並對照修法前實務上實質董事之問題及處理模式,對於新修訂之實質董事規定提出初步之解釋,並對於引進此制度後可能衍生之相關問題,試圖提出建議,以達拋磚引玉之效。
Before the amendment to the Company Act (the "CA"), directors are responsible persons of a company in accordance with Article 8 of the CA. There is no argument that directors are the de jure director elected through legal procedures. However, a person, who is not acting as a director, having similar operational power or privilege as a director is quite common in current practice. It will lead to serious breach to the regulations of corporate governance if the abovementioned person is not subject to the responsibility system of directors. The voices for adding regulations governing shadow directors and de facto directors have been existed in academia for a long time. After a long-term discussion, Paragraph 3, Article 8 of the CA has finally been added at the beginning of 2012. It is a milestone of the company legislations for officially introducing regulations governing shadow directors and de facto directors. However, it needs further clarification for the definition/recognition, application and the responsibility scope of shadow directors and dse facto directors before the courts and regulators having enough experience and cases. For such issues, the verdicts and latest regulations regarding the shadow director and de facto director under England legislations existed for a long period may provide certain inspiration. Therefore, this thesis will analyze the CA of Taiwan in 2006 and important verdicts of England courts and compare with the problem and handling of shadow directors and de facto directors in practice before the amendment to the CA in the view of corporate governance and agent issues. Furthermore, this thesis will also provide the preliminary explanation of the new regulations of preliminary and advice for the derivative problems after introducing such regulations in order to gather and appreciate more valuable opinions.