Anstalt oder Aktiengesellschaft?

In recent decades, communities have increasingly established organizations outside of central administration to fulfill state tasks. This raises the question of the significance of the legal form for such outsourced task bearers. This work addresses this issue at the federal level, the Canton of Bern, and the municipalities of Bern. The legal forms in focus are the legally capable public law institution, the private law entity, and (at the federal level) the special law stock corporation. The study specifically examines state supervision over these organizations, their administrative organizational classification, and the rule of law-democratic requirements during outsourcing. Furthermore, specific areas relevant to outsourcing are analyzed from the perspective of legal form choice: regulatory burden of the community, tax exemption, authority to dispose, employment relationships, popular rights, oversight and financial control supervision, public procurement law, state guarantee, and state liability. The findings illustrate the impacts of the respective choice of legal form and also provide approaches for deciding which legal form is preferable for which outsourcing.