The Legal Nature of the Conflict of Interests

A widespread understanding of the essence of the conflict of interests is reduced to the statement of signs of a situation when personal interests, including the personal benefit of one participant, affect his duties, primarily professional, and at the same time may harm the interests of another participant of the legal relations under consideration. At the same time, not all subsystems of public relations have the concept of a conflict of interests consolidated at the legislative level, and therefore it is quite difficult to strictly prove the existence of a conflict and take legal measures against a person who has a «conflicting» interest. This assumption is illustrated by current judicial practice. The author of the paper sets the objective to examine the legal essence of the phenomenon and the category of conflict of interests, while revealing its versatility by referring to jurisprudence (case law). The paper analyzes various points of view of legal scholars and legal practitioners regarding the content of the category of conflict of interests, as well as legislative norms regulating this issue to one degree or another. Relevant court decisions are considered. As a result of the study, the author comes to the conclusion that there is a dual understanding of the phenomenon of conflict of interests. It is necessary to consolidate its legal definition, as well as normative regulation of individual cases of its manifestation in Federal Law No. 208-FZ of 26.12.1995 «On Joint Stock Companies» and Federal Law No. 14-FZ of 08.02.1998 «On Limited Liability Companies», in particular, taking into account the fact that the range of issues falling under the conflict of interests situation is much wider than just the instances when related-party transactions are made. The author offers recommendations for resolving conflict of interests issues.

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