Näringsdrivande stiftelser. En rättslig studie över ändamål, förmögenhet och förvaltning. Enterprise foundations. A legal study of purpose, property and administration

Sammanfattning: This thesis deals with questions concerning restrictions in the possibility of having commercial activities organised within the legal status of a foundation. An enterprise foundation is a foundation that either carries out commercial activities in its own name or is the owner of shares in a commercial enterprise organised outside the foundation. The commercial activity can be the object of the foundation or a means of achieving that object. Initially the discussion is concentrated on the concept of a foundation and more specifically on the connection between the purpose and the nature of the vested property. Special attention is given to the content of the founding act as being the legal ground for the foundation and its activities. The thesis also contains an informative overview of existing foundations and of the law of foundations in Sweden as of the entry into force of the new Act on Foundations on January 1, 1996. The main question is whether commercial activity is at all possible within the limits and concepts of the purpose of a foundation. Some existing legal or factual restrictions in the possibility of letting the foundation be commercially active and in what way these restrictions affect founders and board members in their relation to the foundation are examined. Questions concerning rules aiming at the protection of the foundation's purpose are also being discussed. The laws of foundations from Denmark, Norway, Germany and Switzerland are used for comparison. The result of the study shows that the law of foundations and other applicable rules contain rather few restrictions on the founder's right to decide on the nature or scope of commercial activity within the foundation. The founder has a fairly wide lattitude in deciding the purpose of the foundation, the amount and nature of the property and the activity to be carried out by the foundation.