Limited Partnership in America and England

Authors

Francis M. Burdick, Columbia University School of Law

Abstract

At last Great Britain has legalized Limited Partnership. More than a quarter of a century ago, Sir Frederick Pollock called attention to the fact that the United Kingdom was almost the only civilized country of the world which had not adopted this institution. The remark was made in an address devoted to an explanation of a bill, which he had drafted, to cover the entire subject of partnership. Long before this, the economical advantages of limited partnership had been set forth by John Stuart Mill and other writers; and repeated attempts had been made to secure a statute legalizing this form of business association. Each of these attempts had failed. Sir Frederick Pollock was of the opinion that their failure was due to two causes: First, the principle of the desired innovation was not perfectly understood by its champions, and hence their efforts were timid and half-hearted. Second, the proposed bills had been brought before Parliament and the public as a piece of statutory patch work, to be fastened as best it could to the existing uncodified law. He believed that success was far more probable if a more ambitious project was presented. Accordingly he essayed the complete codification of the law of partnership, providing for the new form of business association by a number of sections constituting Part IV of the bill.

Recommended Citation

Francis M. Burdick, Limited Partnership in America and England, 6 Mich. L. Rev. 525 (1908).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol6/iss7/1