The Evolution of Legal Systems of Companies Registration based on Right to Access to the Information

Nowadays, Companies Registration in different legal systems are considered as a developed organization which besides undertaking the registration of the company as the final stage of establishment (administrative dimension), has the responsibility of providing information symmetry with the internal and external stakeholders (contractual dimension) at minimum cost. Historical studies, however, have shown that Companies Registration did not initially carry out this advanced mission; rather, it developed and expanded its functions over the time through an evolutionary process and step by step after economic failures, and finally, it has reached today's efficient system. Accordingly, legal systems have experienced, over time, three types of business registration information systems:a)administrative systems: After the failure of the Chartered Company system, multiple pressures by liberals, eventually, led to the liberalization of the establishment of the corporation, and by establishing companies registration organization in various legal systems, the founders were able to obtain a corporate registration certificate by providing identity information to the corporate registration system known as Reference Data. The mere founding role of business firms in the era of liberalism led to rising the Administrative systems of Companies Registration. b)Supportive systems: In the era of liberalism, always both internal stakeholders (small shareholders and employees of the company) and external stakeholders (creditors and individuals seeking economic interaction with the company) have very weak position compared with controllers (managers) in terms of information symmetry. After World failure of economic in1930 , in order to protect the interests of stakeholders, the Companies Registration developed its roles on the basis of gradual process, to expose and provide a greater scope of information that are known as "financial-economic information”. This greater role that supports stake holders provides Supportive systems of Companies Registration. c) Inexpensive systems: After the era of the "welfare state" in the age of "regulation," the discussion of "efficient interventions" of the government and the "cost reduction" arose. Thus, a system called the "Inexpensive system" emerged to reduce the contractual and administrative costs of collecting and accessing information. Ignorance of "developments of roles of companies registration organization " in the Iranian legal system, has led to lack of understanding of the reasons for the interference of this organization in each of the information domains and as a result, it has caused a weak situation in the system of registration of Iranian companies in terms of information provision, that in addition to failing to guarantee the establishment of a company, at the stage of entering into business contracts, it is unable to "reduce costs" and "create information symmetry" ,and for this reason, other Inter-organizational system that have a different function - such as the Codal system that is embedded for special information of stock market companies- have to bear the burden of this institution partly. The purpose of this paper, based on a comparative approach to the types of "Companies registration systems from the perspective of access to information" in the field of Continental Europe and Common Law and to analyze the legal foundations of corporate registration system evolution, is to show that, in the legal perspective, Iranian Companies Registration like other corporate registration systems, is in the process of saving access to information in quantity and quality dimension; however, the executive barriers do not permit the implementation of the intended legislator system. Accordingly, it has finally been suggested that, in order to resolve executive problems and build appropriate capacity for the implementation of the regulator intended system, it may be possible, under existing regulations, to define the functions and competencies of the corporate registration body in the form of executive actions such as by-laws or directives and guidelines.