Rivista del Diritto Commerciale e del diritto generale delle Obbligazioni

Abstract: Enrico Gabrielli and insolvency law - The publication of the business crisis and insolvency code has brought about a significant evolution of insolvency law in Italy. Traditionally, that law was concentrated and exhausted in insolvency procedures structured according to the general idea of bankruptcy and therefore in a predominantly liquidation perspective. In the Code, alongside the traditional law, the law of restructuring is extensively dealt with. This different law favours the overcoming of business crises and the preservation of productive realities. The figures of contract, resolution and company law assume great importance. The nature of liquidation law is essentially procedural, whereas the nature of restructuring law is primarily substantive. In order to properly understand and study restructuring law, aspects of civil law and commercial law are to be deepened. Despite the relative lack of interest of civil and accountant scholars for a subject conceived as procedural, some authors have long devoted themselves to the study of the old bankruptcy law and subsequently the new business crisis law. Enrico Gabrielli is one of these. The essay examines Gabrielli’s work on some fundamental aspects of insolvency law. It also presents general considerations on the structure and function of the new restructuring law, pointing out the need for a collective theoretical effort to understand the new law.  

Sommario: 1. Premessa. – 2. Il diritto dell’insolvenza nel pensiero dei privatisti. – 3. Autonomia privata e diritto dell’insolvenza. – 4. Diritto privato speciale. – 5. Il diritto negoziale dell’insolvenza. – 6. Influenze sul diritto dei contratti. – 7. L’autotutela e i contratti in esecuzione. – 8. Operazione economica di ristrutturazione. – 9. Tradizione e innovazione.

Keywords: Enrico Gabrielli — insolvency law — business crisis — contract — economic transaction — resolution — company.

Sommario: 1. Inquadramento giuridico del nuovo concordato semplificato. – 2. Concordato semplificato: procedura liquidatoria o di continuità aziendale? – 3. Sul contenuto della proposta avanzata dal debitore. – 4. Sul principio di buona fede e correttezza delle trattative nella fase di composizione negoziata. – 5. Violazione del principio di ragionevolezza nel concordato semplificato.  

Abstract: The business contract: an evolving phenomenon - The business contract is a legal phenomenon whose first appearance is noted in the earliest past of the commercial history of human civilization. Since it is a contract type whose autonomy should still be considered crucial and constantly evolving proportionally to the expansive and disruptive trends of markets, it is necessary to carefully evaluate its possible developmental outcomes. To this end, it is essential to consider its past, in order to identify the constant key elements of the main historical stages of the business contract, with particular reference to its presence in the Italian system and its notorious predecessors, including predominantly the Code Napoléon. In order to evaluate the feasibility of a possible new model of business contract, where innovation is at the centre of a new paradigm, legal experts should retrace the steps of the first merchants until the centuries of codifications, the unification of the Italian codes and the more recent overseas influences, while always pursuing a wide-ranging analysis. The new contractual model, based on the history of commercial law, should grant entrepreneurs both flexibility and freedom of forms, with a ductile legal framework that values the long-term relationship and the parties’ true interests.  

Sommario: 1. I contratti d’impresa come categoria autonoma. Premessa definitoria. – 2. Le radici storiche della contrattazione d’impresa. Alle origini più antiche del diritto commerciale. – 3. Dal diritto antico al diritto commerciale dei mercatores. – 4. La rottura dei confini locali e il viaggio verso le Indie. La nascita del modello azionario. – 5. La spinta normativa delle codificazioni. Il Code Civil dell’era napoleonica. – 6. Gli interventi napoleonici nella materia commerciale. L’avvento degli atti di commercio. – 7. Dal Code de commerce napoleonico alle vicende della codificazione italiana. La rilevanza delle riforme codicistiche per la contrattazione d’impresa. – 7.1. La prima esperienza italiana del Codice del commercio del 1865. – 7.2. L’esito del progresso commerciale nel Codice del commercio italiano del 1882. – 7.3. La crisi del Codice del 1882. Le esigenze di rinnovamento nelle vicende storiche italiane del primo dopoguerra. – 8. La svolta epocale del diritto commerciale in Italia. Il contratto di impresa nel codice unificato. – 9. La crisi del giurista nella seconda metà del XX° secolo. Verso la contrattazione moderna. – 10. L’ultimo approdo della contrattazione d’impresa. I frutti della legislazione speciale. – 11. Lo stato dell’arte. La più moderna struttura del contratto d’impresa. – 12. La chiave storica per la contrattualistica imprenditoriale.

Keywords: business contract — Italian civil code — Italian commercial code — Code Napoléon — frontiers of business contracting — history and innovation of contractual law.

Abstract: Institutional investors’ engagement duties relating to ESG issues – The article deals with the engagement activity of institutional investors in listed investee companies, with specific reference to the orientation of such activity toward ESG factors’ protection. After having explained why lawmakers rely (also) on the role of institutional investors for the protection of such factors and having described the regulation contained in the Directive (EU) 2017/828 (“SHRD II”), the author expresses some doubts as to the reasonableness of placing high expectations on the engagement activity of institutional investors for the safeguarding of ESG factors. The article firstly highlights the limitations of institutional investors in developing engagement activity in general – indeed, they are discouraged from, if not structurally incapable of, developing effective engagement activity in investee issuers – and, subsequently, underlines the issues associated with entrusting the safeguarding of ESG factors to private entities. To this end, engagement duties to protect ESG factors are framed among the institutional investors’ fiduciary duties towards their clients. The article then concludes that institutional investors’ capacity to influence investee companies should be diminished rather than been expanded. Finally, two possible techniques through which such reduction of institutional investors’ ability to influence can be achieved are compared, with an analysis of their main problematic profiles.  

Sommario: 1. Premessa. Le tematiche ESG e la corporate governance: perché gli investitori istituzionali. – 2. La disciplina dell’ESG-shareholding: l’engagement. – 3. Disincentivi e inidoneità strutturale degli investitori istituzionali ad esercitare un’efficace attività di engagement. – 4. La tutela dei fattori ESG affidata a soggetti privati: un ruolo sociale per gli investitori istituzionali? – 4.1. Gli interessi protetti dalla disciplina: inquadramento dell’engagement negli obblighi fiduciari verso i clienti. – 4.2. (Segue): riscontri sul piano dell’enforcement. – 5. L’engagement e l’interesse dei clienti: i rischi sistematici. – 6. (Segue): il collective engagement come possibile soluzione; critica. Non solo problemi di azione collettiva: too big to engage together. – 7. Un’alternativa: due ipotesi di diminuzione della capacità di influenza degli investitori istituzionali. Profili problematici.

Keywords: ESG — engagement — stewardship — institutional investors — pass-through voting — shareholders — corporate governance — fiduciary duties.

Abstract: The Duties of Directors of Joint Stock Companies under Crisis and Insolvency Law – The article addresses the duties of directors of joint stock companies that are in a condition of crisis or insolvency. In the first part, the analysis focuses on the duty to set up internal procedures to monitor the business and timely detect the possible occurrence of the crisis or the loss of the business going concern. In this framework, the article also addresses the effects of internal reporting on the occurrence of pre-crisis distress, which may be faced by the new procedure of composition with creditors. The meaning of crisis, pre-crisis and insolvency are also discussed. In the following sections, the article observes how directors’ duties change once that the company has effectively entered a condition of distress, crisis or insolvency. In this perspective, the analysis deals with various issues concerning the duty to timely act to overcome the crisis and to restore the business going concern, including the issue to assess whether the composition with creditors may be pursued when the company is already insolvent. Finally, the analysis shows how the goal of the recent code of crisis and insolvency is to promote creditors’ satisfaction through the reorganization of the business as a going concern, rather than the peace meal liquidation of its assets. Final remarks are made on how the management of the company in crisis and insolvency must protect creditors’ interests.  

Sommario: 1. Introduzione: dal diritto societario al diritto dell’impresa. – 2. Il dovere di istituire assetti adeguati anche in funzione della rilevazione tempestiva della crisi e della perdita della continuità aziendale. – 3. La segnalazione interna dei presupposti della composizione negoziata. – 4. Stato di crisi. – 5. Squilibrio risanabile. – 6. Il dovere di superare la crisi e di ripristinare la continuità aziendale. – 7. Il problema della composizione negoziata quale strumento di superamento della crisi e dell’insolvenza. – 8. L’anticipazione dei doveri di intervento al verificarsi dello squilibrio risanabile prodromico alla crisi. – 9. La regolazione della crisi e dell’insolvenza: promozione della capacità risanatoria e riorganizzativa dell’impresa e marginalizzazione della liquidazione giudiziale. – 10. Gestione dell’impresa e interesse dei creditori.

Keywords: joint stock company — directors’ duties — distress — crisis — insolvency — loss of going concern.