Information transmise par E. Richard:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
CORE
Project
The making of commercial law:
common practices and national legal rules from the early modern period to the modern period
Workshop
The Small, Medium-Sized
and Large Company in Law and Economic Practice
(Middle Ages–Nineteenth Century)
Brussels / Bruxelles
21-22 May 2015
Présentation
The goal of this workshop is to bring together scholars who have worked
on the interactions between law and economic practice, and to address topics concerning
the history of business ventures, from the Middle Ages until c. 1900. The papers of participants
assess differences with regard to the size of partnerships and companies. Over
the past years, limited and general partnerships have received ample attention
from economic and legal historians. Organizational laws containing structural models
for small enterprises (e.g. the French sprl
and German GmbH) have been held up to
the light. Doctrine and case law concerning partnerships have been analyzed. It
seems that in both legal and economic practice, and for all periods mentioned,
smaller companies mattered more than has previously been thought, and even in
periods in which corporations existed. In view of this, many ideas about
companies and firms – large and small – can be reconsidered. Topics that will
be discussed during the workshop are, among others, legal personhood, limited
liability, corporate finance, and corporate governance.
The workshop is the second in a series on the
history of commercial law, organized during the 2014-2017 period in Helsinki,
Brussels and Frankfurt. The conferences will be organized in the framework of
the project “The making of commercial law: common practices and national legal
rules from the early modern period to the modern period”.
Preliminary
programme
Thursday 21 May 2015
9h coffee
9h30-10h50 first session
Ulla Kypta (University
of Basel), Associates
or Agents? Trading Enterprises in Northern and Southern Germany in the Late
Middle Ages
Bart Lambert (Durham University) Making Size Matter Less: Italian Merchant
Guilds as Tools for Capital Redistribution in Late Medieval Bruges
10h50-11h05 coffee
11h05-12h35 second session
Anja Amend-Traut (Würzburg
Universität), Structure of Early Enterprises – from
Commenda-like Arrangements to Chartered Joint-Stock Companies (Early Modern
Period)
Luisa Brunori (Université Paris Sud 11 –
Université Lille 2), The Secunda Scholastica and the
Commercial Company: Persons and Capital in the 16th and 17th Centuries
12h35-14h lunch
14h-15h20 third session
Bram Vanhofstraeten (Maastricht
University), Small-scale and Medium-sized Industrial
Enterprises in Seventeenth-Century Liège
Julie Hardwick
(University of Texas),
'She Failed to Make a Book': Account Books,
Small Enterprises and Emerging Practices of Record Keeping in Early Modern Lyon
15h20-15h35 break
15h35-17h fourth session
Stefania Gialdroni (Roma Trè,
Arcadia University),
Incorporation and Limited Liability in the
English EIC: an Uneasy Relationship
Jelten Baguet (Vrije Universiteit
Brussels), Corporate Governance in a
Small-Scale Pre-Modern Maritime Enterprise: The Case of the Ostend Company
(1722-1731)
Friday 22 May 2015
9h coffee
9h30-10h50 fifth session
Carlos Petit (Universidad de Huelva), From Commercial
Guild to Commercial Law. Spanish Company Regulations, 1737-1848.
Annamaria Monti (Bocconi University), Italian Late 19th-Century Companies: Size and Corporate Governance
10h50-11h05 coffee
11h05-12h25 sixth session
Ron Harris (Tel Aviv University), Private companies in 19th century England
Dag Michalsen (Oslo University), The Development of Norwegian Company Law 1875-1910
12h30-14h lunch
14h-15h20 seventh session
Joeri Vananroye (KU Leuven), Partnerships in 19th-20th c. French and Belgian Doctrine
Dave De ruysscher (Vrije Universiteit
Brussels), Small Companies, Contractual Leeway and
Third-Party Protection (Belgium, c. 1830-c. 1850)
15h20-15h45 break
15h45-17h10 eight session
Edouard Richard (Université de
Rennes), The Banque d’Union générale: Legal Aspects of its Shut-Down (1878-1885)
Matthijs de Jongh (Court of Appeal, Amsterdam), Fuzzy Borders: Dutch Partnership and Company
law in the Second Half of the 18th Century
The organizational committee
- Dave De ruysscher (Vrije Universiteit Brussels-FWO Flanders)
- Heikki Pihlajamäki (University of Helsinki)
- Albrecht Cordes (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)
- Serge Dauchy (Université Lille 2)
Lieu
- SQUARE Brussels Meeting Centre (www.square-brussels.com/, Glass Entrance, rue Mont des Arts, B-1000 Brussels), Brussels
Practical info
- Entrance is free, but registration is required. The final date is 15 April 2015. Please send an email to dderuyss@vub.ac.be. Papers will be sent to participants.
