Head of the Legal Cadastre Competence Team at Höppner Management & Consultant GmbH
A legal register is a good way to record and manage the legal requirements of an organization in a structured manner and to communicate them to employees. It is therefore used to record laws and regulations in all business areas and subject areas of an organization without exception and to map all relevant laws and regulations to which an organization must adhere. The legal register is thus part of general compliance.
Companies are not only required to keep up with the times with their products and services and to continuously develop. Only in this way is lasting business success possible. In this context, it is equally important for companies to comply with all relevant legal regulations – because legal certainty and legal compliance are very important points for any business operation.
The focus is therefore on the so-called legal register. It maps all relevant laws and regulations to which an organization must adhere. In this way, the legal cadastre ensures that all laws and regulations relevant to an organization are known on the one hand and are available in a constantly updated state on the other. In general, knowledge of the relevant regulations for ordinary business activities is one of the basic duties of every management board. In the eyes of the law, no distinction is made between small and large companies.
Risks in the form of sanctions and damage to reputation are to be averted
The keyword is: Compliance! This is understood to mean the duty of corporate bodies to ensure compliance with binding provisions within the company. The Hamburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce, for example, states: “The term originally comes from American law and means ‘compliance with the law’ and ‘conformity’. In business, compliance refers to all measures required to adhere to statutory regulations as well as unwritten codes of conduct. So in addition to legal standards, the term compliance also includes adherence to rules given by the company itself, such as internal company codes.”
And further: “Companies can suffer high material and immaterial damages as a result of white-collar crime. The aim of compliance is to avoid white-collar crime and liability and damage claims or fines. At the same time, it aims to build and maintain reputation and trust to secure (future) business relationships. Risks in the form of sanctions and damage to reputation are to be averted, while at the same time improving the company’s external image. This serves not only to attract and retain customers, but also to recruit employees.”
Variety of regulations possible
A legal register is therefore a good way to record and manage the legal requirements of an organization in a structured manner and to communicate them to the responsible employees. Depending on the area of responsibility and industry, this can range from a manageable number to a large number of regulations. The main focus is on avoiding organizational fault, i.e. a violation of organizational obligations or non-compliance with legal requirements for operational organizational measures.
Speaking of organizational duties: The employer’s organizational duty consists of defining operational processes in such a way that no hazards arise for its employees. First and foremost, this includes defining the operational organization. This includes, for example, ensuring appropriate organization, the safe set-up of business premises, the procurement of safe work equipment, the instruction of workers, the assessment of working conditions and documentation, the coordination of cooperation between several companies, and the performance of occupational health check-ups.
Avoiding liability cases arising from organizational fault
This is an important point for all organizations and their leaders. Tort law regulates that liability or culpability for damage that occurs in the sphere of an organization is assigned to the organization. This can also affect the responsible managing director/board of directors. If damage occurs, the injured party is entitled to compensation. A legal register significantly limits these risks and prevents liability cases arising from organizational negligence. In terms of legal certainty and legal compliance, it is now almost obligatory to maintain a professional legal register in order to minimize entrepreneurial risk!
The basis of the legal register is the knowledge of whether a company is affected by certain laws and legal regulations. Therefore, legal cadastres must always be highly customized and capable of modular or scalable deployment. This enables organizations to maintain a continuous overview of the legal bases, approval notices and other binding obligations relevant to the company. This ranges from the individual preparation and regular updating of regulations to the review of internal implementation as part of a compliance audit.
Legal registers must always be highly individualized
We at Höppner Management & Consultant support the establishment and maintenance of legal registers with the following services:
We work with you to determine which laws and regulations from general environmental/occupational health and safety and energy law apply to your company.
- Based on these regulations, we create a legal register for your company with the resulting corporate obligations.
- We create a standard-compliant legal register (according to ISO 14001 / ISO 50001 / ISO 45001/) with delegation of duties.
- We monitor changes in environmental/occupational health and safety and energy legislation and update your obligations accordingly.
- Compliance with legal obligations can be checked and evaluated accordingly through annual compliance audits at the site.
Therefore, legal cadastres must always be highly customized and capable of modular or scalable deployment. This enables organizations to maintain a continuous overview of the legal bases, approval notices and other binding obligations relevant to the company. This ranges from the individual preparation and regular updating of regulations to the review of internal implementation as part of a compliance audit. Based on an on-site analysis of the operational conditions, the legal cadastre provides the essential operator obligations as recommendations for action – translated in a practice-oriented manner for the relevant employees.
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