Transformation of corporate law: quasi-corporate and quasi-public structures

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to study certain aspects of transformation of corporate relations and corporate law, in the light of blurring of company boundaries and development of digital communications and startup culture. The results and conclusions are obtained based on general scientific and private scientific methods of research. Research studies examples of quasi-corporate and quasi-public structures created through (1) deferred share transfer agreements (SAFE), (2) crowdfunding agreements, (3) public market intermediary companies (SPAC), (4) exchanges for private companies. With the emergence of cross-border hybrid corporate structures at intersection of debt and equity, public and private financing, the current debates on the objectives of corporate law and the purpose of the corporation acquire a new perspective, as the very boundaries of the corporation become fluid. At the same time, decision-making procedures are mediated by third parties and digital technologies, with the prospect of conflict of interest, and are regulated, among other things, by standards emerging so to say from below. In the digital era, flexibility in the choice of elements of the structure allows to detach from the current state corporate regulation and attach to it in the right place and at the right time. It is concluded that the explosive growth of hybrid structures forms new areas of development of legal regulation by rejecting the dichotomy of soft and hard law. Among the vectors of transformation, the growing importance of private law unifications, the development of theoretical apparatus based on the concept of transnational law, the emergence of its subsystems, including lex corporatoria are noted. Among the tasks of lex corporatoria the formation of standards and customs in the field of corporate finance is also postulated as a regulatory framework for functioning of the hybrid structures under study.