Argentina Commercial Code

www.limeres.com :: Limeres, Attorneys :: Tel. Arg.: +54 (9-11) 4162-0021 Tel. USA: +1 (650) 690-7050 :: Cell/SMS USA: +1 (650) 395-7313 Skype: slimeres :: Limeres.com *** Our Offices are located in Buenos Aires, Argentina *** ARGENTINA COMMERCIAL CODE PRELIMINARY TITLE I. The provisions of the Civil Code shall apply to cases which are not specifically governed by this Code. II. In matters in which private agreements may vary the general law, the nature of the acts authorizes the judge to inquire whether reference to custom is essential to the act in order to give contracts and acts their due effect according to the presumed intention of the parties. III. Judges are forbidden to issue general or governing resolutions, their duty being always to confine themselves to the particular case which they are trying. IV. It is competent solely to the Legislative Power to interpret the law in such a way as to bind every one. Such an interpretation shall take effect from the date of the interpreted law; but cannot apply to cases already finally concluded. V. Mercantile customs may supply rules for the determination of the meaning of the technical words or phrases of commerce and for the interpretation of mercantile acts and agreements. BOOK I. COMMERCIAL PERSONS TITLE I. MERCHANTS CHAPTER 1. MERCHANTS IN GENERAL AND ACTS OF COMMERCE Art. 1. (Commercial Code) The law declares to be merchants all individuals who, having legal capacity to contract, practice on their own account acts of commerce, making that their habitual profession. Art. 2. (Commercial Code) As a general rule, every person who makes a profession of buying or selling merchandise is termed a merchant. Particularly is he termed a merchant who buys and manufactures merchandise in order to sell it by wholesale or retail. Booksellers, haberdashers and shopkeepers of every class who sell merchandise which they have not manufactured are also merchants. Art. 3. (Commercial Code) Retail merchants are those who habitually, as regards things which are measured, sell by meters or liters; as regards things which are weighed, by less than 10 kilograms, and as regards things which are counted, by separate parcels. Art. 4. (Commercial Code) Those men of business who are engaged in ventures abroad are merchants, as well as those who confine their trade to the interior of the State, and whether they are engaged in a single branch or in several branches of commerce at the same time. Art. 5. (Commercial Code) All who according to the law possess the quality of merchants are subject to the commercial jurisdiction regulations, and legislation. Acts of merchants are always presumed to be acts of commerce, in the absence of evidence to the contrary. Art. 6. (Commercial Code) Those who perform casual acts of commerce are not considered merchants. Nevertheless, so far as concerns disputes which arise over such transactions, they are subject to the commercial laws and jurisdiction. Art. 7. (Commercial Code) If an act is commercial with regard to one only of the parties, all the contractors are, by reason thereof subject to the mercantile law, except with regard to the provisions respecting the persons of merchants and unless it appears from the provisions of the said law that it refers only to the contractor with regard to whom the act has a commercial character. Art. 8. (Commercial Code) The law declares the following to be general acts of commerce: 1. Every acquisition for valuable consideration of a movable or of a right over movable, in order to profit by its alienation, whether in the same state in which it was acquired or after giving it another form of greater or less value; 2. The transfer to which the previous paragraph refers; 3. Every exchange, brokerage and auction transaction; 4. Every transaction in bills of exchange or local bills; checks and every other kind of paper whether nominative or to the bearer; 5. Undertakings for manufacturing, commission agents, commercial agents, depositories and transport of merchandise and persons by water or land; 6. Insurance, and limited companies, whatever may be their object; 7. Freight, construction, buying and selling of vessels, equipment, provisions and everything relating to maritime commerce; 8. Transactions of factors, bookkeepers and other merchants; employees, so far as concerns the business of the merchant to whom they are subordinate; 10. Agreements on wages of workers and other employees of merchants; 9. Letters of credit, guarantees, pledges and other accessories of a commercial transaction; 10. Other acts specifically subjected to this Code. CHAPTER 2. LEGAL CAPACITY TO PRACTICE COMMERCE Art. 9. (Commercial Code) Every person who, according to the ordinary laws, has the free management of his property is legally capable of practicing commerce. Those who, by the same laws, are not bound by their agreements and contracts, are to the same extent legally incapable of performing acts of commerce, subject to the modifications made in the following articles. Art. 10. (Commercial Code) Every person above 18 years of age can practice commerce provided that he is proved to be emancipated of legally authorized. Art. 11. (Commercial Code) Emancipation is lawful: 1. Which contains the express authorization of the father or of the mother, as the case may be; 2. When inscribed and published in the proper Tribunal of Commerce. On these requirements being fulfilled, the minor will be reputed of age for all commercial acts and obligations. Art. 12. (Commercial Code) A child above 18 years of age who has been a partner with his father, mother or both, in business, will be reputed and authorized and of full age for all legal purposes in the mercantile transactions of the partnership. An authorization, once granted, can only be withdrawn from a minor by a judge, at the insistence of the father, mother, guardian, or the Ministry for the protection of minors, according to the circumstances, and after a previous trial of the case. This withdrawal, in order to take effect with respect to third parties who are not aware of it, must be registered and published in the proper Tribunal of Commerce. Art. 13. (Commercial Code) The marriage of a female merchant does not alter her commercial rights and obligations. It is presumed that she is authorized by her husband, so long as he does not give notice to the contrary by circular directed to the persons with whom she has had commercial relations, and inscribed in the proper commercial Register and published in the newspapers of the place. Art. 14. (Commercial Code) A married woman of full age can practice commerce with the authorization of her husband of full age, given by the notarial instrument duly registered, or if there has been a legal separation of property. In the first case, all the property of the conjugal partnership is bound by the results of the trading, and in the second, only the separate property of the wife, the profits which belong to her, and those which she acquires subsequently. Art. 15. (Commercial Code) The authorization may be tacit, when the wife practices commerce in the view and with the permission of her husband, in the absence of a contrary declaration by him duly registered and published. Art. 16. (Commercial Code) A wife cannot be authorized by the Judges to execute acts of commerce against the wish of her husband. Art. 17. (Commercial Code) When authorization to practice commerce has been granted a wife can bind herself by all acts resulting thereto, without a particular authorization being necessary. Art. 18. (Commercial Code) The authorization by the husband to perform acts of commerce only comprises those which are of that nature. A wife who is authorized to practice commerce is presumed to be authorized to appear in court in respect of the acts and contracts relating to her business. In case of opposition at the instance of her husband, the judges can grant the authorization. Art. 19. (Commercial Code) Both a minor and a married woman, who are merchants, can mortgage their immovable property to secure the obligations which they contract as merchants. The burden of proof that the agreement took place with respect to an act of commerce falls on the creditor. Art. 20. (Commercial Code) A married woman, although she has been authorized by her husband to practice commerce, cannot charge or mortgage the immovable property of her husband, nor that which belongs in common to both spouses, unless that power has been expressly conferred in the notarial instrument of authorization. Art. 21. (Commercial Code) The revocation of the authorization granted by a husband to his wife in terms of Art. 18 only takes effect if it is made by a notarial instrument duly registered and published. It will take effect as regards a third person after being inscribed in the Commercial Register and published by advertisements in the newspapers (if any). Art. 22. (Commercial Code) The following are forbidden to practice commerce on the ground of incompatibility of status: 1. Ecclesiastical corporations; 2. Clergy of whatever degree so long as they wear clerical garments; 3. Civil Magistrates and Judges in the territory where they exercise their authority and jurisdiction under permanent warrant. Art. 23. (Commercial Code) In the prohibition of the preceding article, the power of lending money at interest is not included, provided that the persons mentioned therein do not make an habitual profession of commerce in the exercise of this power. Nor does it include the power of being shareholders in any kind of mercantile company, so long as they do not take part in the administrative management. Art. 24. (Commercial Code) The following are prohibited for legal capacity: 1.

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