The Legal History Library, a series edited by Remco van Rhee (Maastricht), Dirk Heirbaut (Ghent) and M.C. Mirow (FIU), has just published The Company in Law and Practice: Did Size Matter? (Middle Ages-Nineteenth Century), edited by D. De ruysscher, A. Cordes, S. Dauchy and H. Pihlajamäki (Leiden: Brill Nijhoff, 2017).
This volume brings together nine chapters by specialist legal historians that address the topic of the scale and size of companies, in both legal and economic history. The bundled texts cover different periods, from the Middle Ages, the Early Modern Period, to the nineteenth century. They analyse the historical development of basic features of present-day corporations and of other company types, among them the general and limited partnership. These features include limited liability and legal personality. A detailed overview is offered of how legal concepts and mercantile practice interacted, leading up to the corporate characteristics that are so important today.
The work may be found at:
http://www.brill.com/products/book/company-law-and-practice-did-size-matter-middle-ages-nineteenth-century
Professor Mirow is a founding faculty of FIU College of Law and member of the Florida Bar. He publishes extensively on Florida legal history and original documents, and other topics. To read Prof. Mirow’s works, visit his Selected Works gallery