Is There A Dissertation Lurking Here?
November 11, 2009
I was catching up on a number of blogs that I follow last night (after watching the masterful reworking of the classic 1980s hit “V”), and stumbled across this new book “The Rise of the Uncorporation.” The book traces the history and significance of alternative forms of legal organization to the corporation. Partnerships, LLPs and other non-traditional organizations have been quite important at various points in history, and form the focus of at least half a semester of the law school class known as “Business Associations.” (Important mainly because bar examiners love these more arcane forms). We’ve focused largely on corporate forms in this class (although some of the corporations may have started out otherwise, and some of Scranton’s exemplars may have been alternative organizations). Seems to me like this book is only scratching the surface, based on my scan of a few reviews, and that there may be a lot of good work to be done here. Legal history, social history, labor history (that might be particularly interesting, thinking about how relations worked on this level–how do these unincorporated forms of larger businesses deal with unions?), responsibility to the public (is there the same level of hatred that forms towards corporations?). Philosophically, there is no legal personality to the uncorporation–what does that mean legally? Historically? I am looking forward to reading this book over the break. The abstract is below, and if you can’t wait for Amazon to deliver your copy, here is the first chapter.
Tom, This is a facinating subject. I remember in business school we discussed partnerships, limited partnerships, etc., but never thought about it very much after that.
1/ The first thought I had was how do these firms fit into the model Scranton gave us which if I recall correctly is mostly about manufacturing entites.
2/ My second thought was are ‘uncorporations’ mostly service providers? I know the growth of the service sector has dwarfed the manufacturing and agriculture sectors for some time.
3/ Next, I am wondering if businesses like my SIL’s roofing business are a prime example of an uncorporation. Although he is the sole owner now, at one time the business was family owned by his father and mother and brothers. Surely over time the legal underpinnings have shifted as fewer and fewer people held an interest in the business.
If you’re looking for “legal organizations” alternative to corporations, then the sky is the limit. At the most extreme this could even encompass political “legal organizations”. After all, LEGAL economic organizations and political organizations often perform many of the same functions such as organizing labor, distribution of goods and services, etc. For modern readers “The State” is the most common organization to come to mind. However, I think older forms of political organizaitons such as royal families, cities, or tribes could also count.