Introduction

The types of business organisation discussed in the present chapter are all governed by national law. However, the laws governing public limited liability companies and the more rarely encountered hybrid forms between a public company and a limited partnership, which are sometimes regarded as public companies with personally liable directors or limited partnerships with shares, perhaps more properly called sociétés en commandite par actions or Kommanditgesellschaften auf Aktien, as well as private limited liability companies, have been frequently influenced by provisions of Community directives, which have required implementation in the Member States. Partnerships have not generally been made subject to such directives and the same is true of the new French business entity, the société par actions simplifiée (SAS) as well as for the new German partnership form for use by the liberal professions, the Partnerschaftsgesellschaft.

The present chapter will not contain any detailed account of the European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG), which is governed by a Community Regulation, or the European Company, or of the less well known proposals for a European Private Company. These three matters are considered in a later chapter.

The substantive part of this chapter will begin with a discussion of public limited companies, which will be followed by one on the new French entity, the société par actions simplifiée, which is in essence a simpler form of the public (or share) company having a more flexible character than the French Société anonyme (SA).