從公司法第一條修正談公司治理之內外部機制──兼論企業社會責任的推動模式

Reflections from the Amendment to Article 1 of Taiwan's Company Act in 2018 on Internal and External Accountability Mechanisms of Corporate Governance: With a Look at How to Promote Corporate Social Responsibility

二○一八年公司法第一條增訂第二項，一方面彰顯包含法令遵循在內之企業內部自律機制對公司治理的重要；另方面指出公司應將企業社會責任內化至其業務經營中。然而，縱使我國近年來持續地引進英美的公司治理模式（例如獨立董事及審計委員會之漸進式強制設置），惟僅透過屬公部門法規之外部他律機制強化董事會獨立性，似仍不足完善公司治理。本文主張應同步將政府面以及市場面之外部他律機制帶動的監督力量內化到企業內部自律機制中，以作為移植英美公司治理模式的必要配套。在此等公司治理生態系中內外部機制的互補作用下，經由公私部門的合作治理，一方面持續提升臺灣公司內部治理之品質；他方面讓企業社會責任得與時俱進地內化至公司內部自律機制與業務經營之中。

The amendment to Article 1 of Taiwan’s Company Act demonstrates, on the one hand, that internal accountability mechanisms including legal compliance programs matter, and, on the other hand, that firms should internalize corporate social responsibilities ( “CSR”) into their daily operation. Nevertheless, even if the Taiwanese government has been mandating corporate governance (“CG”) models of Anglo-American independent directors and audit committees step by step, we cannot rely only on such external accountability mechanisms as government regulation to improve corporate governance. I argue that the focus should be on external accountability mechanisms of both market constraints and their governmental counterparts altogether, and that, as necessary supplements to the transplantation of the Anglo-American CG models into Taiwan, oversight dynamics derived from both the aforementioned constraints should at the same time be incorporated into internal accountability mechanisms. In this case, internal and external accountability mechanisms in the CG ecosystem will be harmonic with each other to keep management in check. Meanwhile, with such public-private collaborative governance, internal corporate governance in Taiwan will be advanced on the one hand; on the other, internal accountability mechanisms can be adaptable to integrate CSR with firms’ daily management.