Private Law Theory

ABSTRACT
In this paper, I will investigate the historical development of limited liability – widely considered the cornerstone of the business corporation. I challenge the common, linear narratives about how limited liability evolved, and argue that corporations, the stock markets, and the corporate economy enjoyed a long and prosperous history well before limited liability in its modern sense became established. This radically different historical understanding calls for the economic theory of limited liability to be revisited. It also opens up a new set of conceptual, empirical, and theoretical research questions, and points to new possibilities for viable liability regimes in the future.

Harris, Ron, A New Understanding of the History of Limited Liability: An Invitation for Theoretical Reframing (August 22, 2019).

First posted 2019-08-23 06:00:44