On The Identification Of Improper Purpose In The Exercise Of Shareholders' Right To Inspect

The shareholder's right to know is the inherent and legal basic rights and interests entrusted to the shareholder by law,and the substantive rights of the shareholder's right to know are mainly embodied in the exercise of the shareholder's right to consult.However,in real life,shareholders often suffer from various restrictions when they exercise the right to know.Among them,the inspection requirement is considered to have "improper purpose" which is the main obstacle for shareholders to exercise the right.The Supreme People's Court's Provisions on the Application of the Company Law of the People's Republic of China(4)> Article 8 of Interpretation IV hereinafter referred to as "Article 4" lists and generalizes the situations in which shareholders may have "improper purposes" and sets forth the "bottom clause" in Article 4.But the improper purpose is the description of the subjective psychological activities of the subject of the right to know.It can only be inferred from the behavior of the subject of the right to know or made legal presumption.It is difficult to prove that it can only be reasonably recognized or made legal presumption by the objective behavior of the shareholders.The author tries to make a horizontal comparison between the domestic and foreign legal provisions on the right to know,and combines the existing adjudicative cases,enumerates and provides some suggestions on the clauses of unfair purpose,so as to balance the interests of shareholders and companies in the right to access accounting books.