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Corporate law deals with how laws relate to businesses, corporations, shareholders, and entities involved in commerce. It originated from medieval trade guilds and evolved into corporations as separate entities from their owners. Corporate lawyers engage in litigation between companies and against national governments, making it an increasingly complex field.
Among the various specialties within the legal profession there is the field of corporate law. Unlike criminal or procedural law, corporate law is largely focused on practice outside the courtroom. Broadly, it deals with how the laws relate to businesses, corporations, shareholders, and other entities involved in the practice of commerce.
One of the most important concepts of moderate company law is the idea that companies are treated independently, in the legal system, from their constituent parts. Corporations, as they are legally defined, can be sued without that suit extending to their shareholders and partners. Similarly, shareholders are limited in any liability they may incur as a result of the company’s performance. For example, if a company goes bankrupt, that doesn’t mean its shareholders necessarily have to be part of it.
Company law, as it is recognized today, has been around for more than 500 years and grew out of the associations that existed in medieval trade guilds. As European traders began to expand overseas, engaging in riskier and more costly pursuits, it became apparent that pooling trading interests could reduce individual risk and spread the reward. With the blessings of their governments, entities such as the Dutch East India Company arose in the 1500s, with individual investors pooling together to undertake more expensive projects than they could finance independently.
In England and Holland, early companies received royal charters, which granted special privileges – such as exclusive trading rights – the first in a long line of close and mutually beneficial partnerships between companies and their governments. Over the next several hundred years, legislation establishing stock trading and the right to limited liability, coupled with legal precedents regarding a company’s status as a separate entity from its owners, transformed corporations into the artificial people that exist today. as, in modern law.
Corporate law has become increasingly refined in the 20th century, as governments and courts have ruled that companies can donate money to political campaigns, lobby elected officials, and even be found guilty of crimes, such as murder. Increasing globalization has meant that companies can do business and have shareholders all over the world, making corporate law an increasingly complex field.
Not only do corporate lawyers engage in litigation between companies, but also against national governments. With the profits of the world’s largest companies exceeding the gross domestic product of entire countries, allegations of monopolistic or anti-competitive behavior, violation of government regulations, and other crimes can often put a company at odds with its government. As a result, virtually all firms develop or outsource entire legal departments to navigate the intricacies of modern corporate law.
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