독일기업지배구조규준에 따른 감사의 독립성에 관한 연구

Independence as a legal concept means the freedom from third parties that influence and thus restrict the impartiality. In German law, it is important wherever people make decisions that create conditions of trust that affect the relationship between the parties involved. This also applies to auditor who monitor and advise the board of directors and have to be guided solely by the company's interests, regardless of particular interests. The relevant recommendations in the DCGK are an essential basis for the independence of auditor. These have been revised in the 2019 DCGK. They tie in with abstract conflicts of interest or their absence and substantiate them with the help of indicative criteria. In view of the need for interpretation and the lack of clarity in the formulations used here numerous questions. This applies, for example, to the concept of the controlling shareholder, personal and business relationships, the question of when a conflict of interest is "material" or how the appropriate number of independent auditor is to be determined. The present study classifies the independence requirement for auditor conceptually and specifies and concretises the sometimes vague formulations. It is to be hoped that the Commission will use this as an opportunity in further future revisions of the code to further specify the recommendations on independence in order to enable companies to handle the recommendations in a legally secure manner.