The Business of Company Law: An Introduction for Students Hardcover - 1996

From the rear cover

This is the story of Great Expectations Limited, a family business started in 1946. But it is a story with a difference. For this is a story whose principal characters, partnership law and company law, never appear in person but dominate the whole story, shaping events in a way which will instantly recognizable to students and non-students alike. This, then, is a textbook, but a textbook which introduces its themes and ideas by means of an extended case-history - the history of Great Expectations Limited. The history follows Great Expectations through its early years as a one-man business and then as a partnership such as partners' duties to each other and liabilities to outsiders. Later the business becomes a company, and the history explores basic company law concepts, such as limited liability and the distinction between private and public companies, before moving on to more complex issues including the international aspects of company law, the relationship between shareholders and directors, the protection of minority interests, the raising of corporate finance, directors' liability, disqualification of directors and the ever-growing influence of harmonization measures at the European level. Though always accurate, and technical where necessary, the book is nevertheless written in a style which reflects the aims of the authors to avoid the excessive technicality which very frequently makes partnership and company law 'bogey' subjects for students and lay people alike. The book is thus suitable as an introduction to these areas of law for anyone coming to them for the first time.