論公司的法令遵行制度及董事會之治理責任

Corporate Legal Compliance Systems and the Governance Responsibility of Board of Directors

企業的法令遵行，對整體經濟社會秩序維持至關重大，本文由治理的角度切入，探討在法制上如何確保企業經營者能持續性地由上到下能落實法令遵行，以減少企業有違反法令規定的機會。針對公開發行公司，目前主要的規範手段為強化企業的內部控制制度，並搭配公開資訊揭露以及董事的責任。然而，現行的內控制度聲明書，實務上是否確實有達到資訊揭露的效果，恐有疑問，董事的相關責任是否足以促使董事及經理人認真落實內部控制與法令遵行制度，亦值得未來更深入研究，以免相關制度流於表面文章；此外，我國現行規範目前僅適用於公開發行公司，雖然符合規範成本與交易成本的考量，但我國仍有數十萬家非公開發行之股份有限公司或有限公司，其法令遵行的品質對社會大眾影響甚鉅，但我國現行法下針對非公開發行公司的法令遵行制度，目前主要僅依賴各種罰則以及董事責任來強化其法令遵行的責任，是否足夠值得於立法政策上思考。

The legal compliance of companies is crucial to the maintenance of the entire economic and social orders. This article discusses how to ensure corporate managers to continuously adhere to the legal compliance from top-down to reduce the chance of violating the laws and regulations. For publicly traded companies, current regulatory regimes focus on strengthening corporate internal control systems, as well as on the public information disclosure and director’s duties and liabilities. However, whether the current statement of internal control system can effectively reveal useful and sufficient information to the market is questionable. Whether the relevant liabilities of directors are sufficient enough to propel directors and officers to seriously implement the internal control and legal compliance systems implement is worth in-depth research in the future in order to prevent it from being mere formality. Besides, there is no obligation to establish internal control and legal compliance systems for non-publicly traded companies in Taiwan. Although consistent with the regulatory and transactional cost, Taiwan still has tens of thousands of non-publicly traded companies whose legal compliance qualities may have significantly impacts on the society at large. The current legal regime to the legal compliance systems of non-public companies relies solely on various penalties and directors’duties for failing to comply with laws and regulations. Whether it is sufficient should be reconsidered by regulatory authorities in the future.