An analytical study of the criminal liability for founders of joint-stock companies

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Abstract

Due to the importance of commercial enterprises to economic development, the UAE legislature has sought to carefully regulate them, including providing guarantees to prevent manipulation by founders during the incorporation period. This article focuses on the criminal liability of founders of joint-stock companies in Emirati law and clarifies the actions that result in criminal liability for founders of joint-stock companies. The article approaches the topic by first defining a founder and the qualifications they must possess. Then, the article discusses the crimes and the rulings related to the crimes committed during the incorporation of a joint-stock company (Kamensky, Dudorov, Movchan, Vozniuk, & Makarenko, 2020). This is done by analyzing the relevant laws, including the UAE Commercial Enterprise Law (Number 2 of 2015). The article concludes that the Emirati legislature has defined the purpose of founders and provided the conditions that a person must fulfill to sign the initial contract to incorporate a company as a founder. Moreover, this study showed that the Emirati legislature has leaned towards issuing severe punishments for those who commit these crimes.

Keywords: UAE Corporate Enterprise Law, Criminal Liability, Company Founders, Joint-Stock Companies, Incorporation Crimes, In-Kind Shares, Subscription, Shares

Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization — T.K. and M.A.A.; Methodology — M.A.A., T.K., and T.M.S.; Investigation — M.A.A. and T.K.; Resources — T.K., M.A.A., and T.M.S.; Writing — Original Draft — T.K., M.A.A., and T.M.S.; Writing — Review & Editing — T.K., M.A.A., and T.M.S.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

JEL Classification: K200, K220, K140

Received: 18.10.2021
Accepted: 28.12.2021
Published online: 29.12.2021

How to cite this paper: Kameel, T., Alkrisheh, M. A., & Shiyab, T. M. (2021). An analytical study of the criminal liability for founders of joint-stock companies [Special issue]. Corporate Governance and Organizational Behavior Review, 5(2), 203–211. https://doi.org/10.22495/cgobrv5i2sip8