Arab corporate law

Arab corporate law (Arabic: قانون الشركات qānūn ash-sharikāt) governs the rights, obligations and limitations of companies, cooperatives, associations or other organisations, and regulates the conduct of business in the Arab Union. All entities, formally legal persons–apart from natural persons and government entities–are subject to corporate law, which is uniform across all republics (federated states) and other administrative divisions of the Arab Union. Because of the country's strong common law tradition, classification system developed organically over time through a series of bills passed by the Arab Congress, ultimately consolidated by the Domestic Trade Act, 1999.

Because of the federal structure of the Arab Union, legal entities may be:


 * 1) incorporated in one or more federal jurisdictions (republics and equivalent units), wherein articles of incorporation are registered separately with the appropriate authority for each respective jurisdiction; or,
 * 2) incorporated at the federal level, registering with the Ministry of Trade's Inland Business Registry.

The State Revenue Committee is the agency responsible for administering and enforcing corporate law across the country. Arab corporate law has provisions against "white-collar crime" (ie. crime committed by or against corporations, including fraud or insider trading), however, it is designated separately by the Criminal Code. Non-criminal legal matters affecting entities which were incorporated federally are decided according to the specific corporate law of the republic(s) for which the matter is most relevant. For example, the federally-incorporated technology and shipping conglomerate Sinocrot was sued by the Palestinian National Longshoremen's Union for allegedly forcing workers at its Jaffa, Gaza and Port Said shipyards to work in conditions management knew to be unsafe; as legislation regarding workplace safety is considered corporate law, Palestinian corporate law was applied to the case, both in the rulings of the Palestine National Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Palestine, and during the appeal process to the federal Supreme Court of the Arab Union which is ongoing.

List of legal entity types
All legal entities are incorporated as one of ten possible legal types, depending on the nature of ownership and liability for the operator:


 * Jamaeh Majhouleh (جماعة مجهولة): public company/anonymous society (minimum capital UND 150,000)
 * Sharikeh Mahdoudeh (شركة محدودة): limited company (privately held, no minimum capital required)
 * Jamaeyeh Teawnieh (جمعية تعاونية): cooperative
 * Mo'assaseh Mamloukeh lid-Dawleh (مؤسسة مملوكة للدولة): state-owned enterprise
 * Sharikeh Tabeah (شركة تابعة): subsidiary
 * Monazzameh Gheir Hokoumieh (منظمة غير حكومية): non-governmental organisation (not-for-profit)
 * Mo'assaseh Kheirieh Mosajileh (مؤسسة خيرية مسجلة): registered charity