社會企業立法模式——以美國社會企業立法為中心

Legal Structures for Social Enterprises -A Study on the Legislation of Social Enterprise in the United States

2016年在政府的主導下，公司法將進行全盤之檢討修正，而公司法全盤修法委員會將「兼益公司」作為修法重點之一。修正委員會所提之「兼益公司」即為一般所稱之「社會企業」。由此可知，社會企業之立法在我國已為不可擋之勢。本文之目的在於介紹美國目前各州對於社會企業立法之三種最常見之立法模式，包括在一般股份有限公司下以專章節制定之公益公司與社會目的公司，以及在有限公司下以專章節制定之低獲利有限公司。有些州僅採一種立法，惟亦有許多州採取兩種以上之立法。這三種模式在美國各州之規定下，對於社會企業之規範之強度有所不同，公益公司之法規範較為嚴格，而社會目的公司以及低獲利公司賦予社會企業較高之彈性。本文將在介紹並加以分析此三種立法模式後，就我國目前公司法全盤修正委員會之修法方向，提出建議，冀望社會企業在我國得以更加蓬勃發展。

In 2016, under the guidance of the Taiwanese government, the Company Act is undergoing a complete review and amendment, and one of the focuses of this amendment is new legislation for the “Profit-with-Purpose Company.” Therefore, the decision to enact new laws for social enterprise has come to the forefront. This article aims to introduce three types of enactments for social enterprise in the United States, including “Benefits Corporations” and “Social Purpose Corporations” that are enacted under the corporation law, and also the “Low-Profit Limited Liability Company” that is enacted under the limited liability company law. Some states have only a single enactment, but other states include more than one type of legislation. These three types of social enterprise are regulated under different levels of strictness. Benefit Corporations have more mandatory regulations, but the other two entitle the companies to have more discretion and flexibility in their regulations. This article wishes to introduce and analyze the three different types of social enterprise enactments and then to combine the opinions from the Committee of the Amendment of Company Act to recommend the future enactment of social enterprise of Taiwan. By doing so, we hope the social enterprise in Taiwan can have better development in the future.