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 (legal persons) are subject to corporate law, which is uniform across all republics and equivalent administrative divisions of the Arab Union. Because of the country's strong common law tradition, the system of classification of corporate entities developed organically over time, through a series of bills passed by the Arab Congress circa 1959 to 1999, ultimately consolidated via the Domestic Trade Act, 1999.

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


 * 1) in one or more federal jurisdictions, wherein articles of incorporation are registered separately with the appropriate authority of jurisdiction(s) therein incorporated; or,
 * 2) at the federal level, articles of incorporation being registered with the Domestic Trade Registry under the Ministry of Trade.

The State Revenue Committee, in addition to administering taxation, is the agency responsible for enforcement of corporate law across the country, its main tool being the audit; it is separate from the Ministry of Trade, operating as an independent agency attached to the Council of Ministers. Arab corporate law has provisions against so-called "white-collar crime" (ie. crime committed by or against corporations, including fraud and insider trading); like other categories of crime, however, it is designated separately by and prosecuted under the Criminal Code of the Arab Union.

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