Felix Somary · 1906
Somary’s brief review singles out two contributions to the 1903 Festgabe at the intersection of law and economics: Rießer’s study of supervisory-board reform and Simon’s account of corporate balance sheets.
In der Festgabe der juristischen Gesellschaft für den Reichsbankpräsidenten Koch, Berlin 1903, 446 S. sind zwei interessante Abhandlungen aus dem Grenzgebiete von Jurisprudenz und Ökonomie enthalten, die Monographien von Rießer über die Aufsichtsratfrage (Reformvorschläge zu § 246 H.-G.) und von Simon über die Bilanzen der Aktiengesellschaften: Simon betont mit vollem Recht, daß die Bilanz nicht alle Rechte und Verbindlichkeiten, sondern nur die nach ordnungsgemäßer Buchführung verzeichneten enthalte und Forderungen wie Schulden nur insoweit bringe, als sie im Hauptbuch enthalten waren; so tritt zum Beispiel in der Bilanz der Umfang der Giroverbindlichkeiten nicht zutage.
English translation: The Festgabe of the Juridical Society for the Reichsbank President Koch, Berlin 1903, 446 pp., contains two interesting treatises from the borderland between jurisprudence and economics, the monographs by Rießer on the supervisory-board question (proposals for the reform of § 246 of the Commercial Code) and by Simon on the balance sheets of joint-stock companies: Simon emphasises with full right that the balance sheet contains not all rights and obligations, but only those recorded in accordance with proper bookkeeping, and brings in claims as well as debts only in so far as they were contained in the ledger; thus, for example, the extent of the giro liabilities does not appear in the balance sheet.
The review moves from identifying the two studies to endorsing Simon’s distinction between legal obligations and their accounting representation. Its substantive emphasis is the balance sheet’s limited reach: claims and debts appear only insofar as they enter the ledger. Giro liabilities supply the concrete example of what this representation fails to disclose; Rießer’s reform proposals receive no further discussion.
This work was divided into 1 sections when it entered the library's research corpus—an apparatus for search and citation, not necessarily the author's own table of contents. Each title opens its summary.
Put a question to this work; the Librarian answers from its 1 sections and cites the passage.
Ask the Librarian