Corporations and corporate financial instruments in Russian and foreign law

Introduction: the paper investigates the legal regime of corporate financial instruments in the context of the convergence of the world legal systems taking into account historically determined national differentiation. We study the legal regime of corporate financial instruments with respect to the status peculiarities of a corporation as a subject of legal relations and the regime characteristics of a financial instrument as a legal object. The purpose of the study is to analyze and generalize the legal experience of economically developed countries and to explain the modern legal content of the concept ‘corporate financial instrument’ against the related legal terms ‘securities’, ‘financial instrument’, ‘corporation’; to reveal major problems in the doctrine and positive legal regulation. Methods: comparative-legal, formal-logical, historical, analytical, empirical methods, and legal modeling. Results: the analysis of Russian and foreign experience made it possible for us to explain the specific nature of the legal status of corporation as the main component of modern economic systems, which determines special legal regimes of financial instruments that provide certain corporate rights. Conclusions: in terms of comparative analysis, of special interest is legal experience of such countries as Germany, France, Great Britain, and the USA since these countries show a higher level in the development of corporate legal forms and financial markets. Since early 1990s, Russia has been demonstrating high rates in the formation of the system of financial instruments circulation, which, with respect to the legal development of the corporate legal entity doctrine, brings Russian legal system closer to the world major legal systems. In the light of the focus on the sustainable economic development and defense of state interests with the use of modern digitalization methods, this also objectifies and makes currently relevant the development of the national legal regime of the corporate financial instrument based on the international legal experience.