[06 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE,

of a legal person. The form of organization usually chosen is that
f the Aktiengesellschaft (stock company), the Gesellschaft mit
beschrinkter Haftung (limited-liability company), or the Kommanditgesellschaft
 (commandite company; limited partnership).
The Aktiengesellschaft approximates in legal character the ordinary
American corporation. The Gesellschaft mit beschrinkter Haftung
is also a corporation, a legal person, with the peculiarity that its
stock can not be sold or transferred without the consent of the shareholders
 to anyore who is not already a shareholder. The Kommanditgesellschaft
 is a limited or special partnership, with some
partners fully liable for its debts and others liable only for fixed
sums.
Special cartels and selling agencies for export trade.—Most of
the important cartels engage in export trade, and in some instances
special selling agencies have been formed to handle the export business.
 These are discussed later in connection with the special organizations
 for foreign trade. (Pp. 113-114.)
Cartel arbitration boards.—The German Code of Civil Procedure
cermits members of a cartel to settle difficulties arising from their
cartel agreement by a beard of arbitration outside of the regular
government courts. This system makes it possible to procure expeditions
 and final rulings by experts, and obviates protracted
litigation.?
Legislation and decisions of the courts regarding cartels.—The
German civil law recognizes the complete validity of industrial combinations,
 while the criminal code contains no prohibition against
sartels, nor any special law concerning them. There is no cartel law
proper in Germany. A cartel contract is put on the same basis as
any other contract by the German law, and the courts have expressly
declared them valid, including the penalty clauses embraced therein
for violation of such agreements.® Various provisions of the Unfair
Competition Law of 1909 and of the Penal and Civil Codes have
been applied successfully by the German courts to suppress objeciionable
 cartel practices.*
Attitude of the Government toward cartels.—The attitude of the
German Government toward cartels may be characterized as one of
benevolent watchfulness. In discussing syndicates and monopolies
in the Reichstag on March 4, 1912, the Minister of the Interior, Dr.
Delbriick, stated in substance that cartels on the whole had not
abused their power, but, as some of the syndicates were beginning to

1 Reichsgesetzblatt, 1898, p. 846 fol. L. Silberberg, Handbuch d. Deutschen Kartellrechts,
 Berlin, 1910, p. 168. A. F. Schuster, The German Commercial Code, London,
i911, p. 65 fol.
: 3. Tschierschky, op. cit., p. 88.
3. Walker, * The Law Concerning Monopolistic Combinations in Continental Europe.”
n Political Science Quarterly, March, 1905, p. 15 fol.
4 Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on Trust Laws and Unfair Competition,
Washington, March 15, 1915, Dp. 620.