Agency, Associations, Employment, Licensing and Partnerships: Cases, Statutes and Analysis on Enterprise Organization
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Description
The problems which arise out of the organization of human groups have many of the same fundamental elements, whether those groups take the form of proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, or sodalities. These elements are understood better, and at less cost in time, if they are put together, rather than separated in the traditional courses of agency, partnership, and business corporations. The combined treatment also facilitates including glimpses of the societies, clubs, and unions which are so important a feature of contemporary society. This feature, which characterized the predecessor casebooks on “Business Organization” has been continued and intensified in “Enterprise Organization.” The change in title signifies, among other things, a broadening of scope beyond mere “business.” The most conspicuous innovation in the present volume is a new emphasis on prerequisites which modern states impose on the formation of the simplest business organizations, and even on the lone worker’s pursuit of a vocation. Licensing is rapidly pervading all areas of gainful activity. In addition, few enterprises escape the necessity of filing something about their organization. For generations, law students were taught that corporations were distinguished by the fact that some papers had to be filed before doing business in corporate form. Many states now require partnerships also to file. In the preceding editions, some materials on these topics were inconspicuously inserted in chapters on other subjects. We now draw them together, augment them with materials on corporate filing, and make them into an introductory chapter. We want no student to escape with the idea that, since it’s a free country, an enterprise can be launched without paper work. We are also combatting the idea that an employer can hire whom he wants, indulging his personal preferences among males and females, blacks and white, Baptists and Jews. He must avoid discrimination against any under-represented group; he may even be required to take affirmative action to equalize under-representation. These are not matters merely for specialists in labor law, but part of the A-B-C of setting up an enterprise. We have included in our first chapter a brief confrontation with these problems. In at least one sense, the book is old-fashioned. We present the positive law. It is not enough to suggest a question; we present cases which supply judicial answers. We frequently present paired cases, helping to show where the judicial lines are drawn. When we think a judicial answer is not to be relied on, we add notes of caution. At the same time, we furnish materials for weighing the attractions of other rules. Foreign law notes, economic analyses, legal critiques supply suggestions of alternative solutions and their possible advantages. Two of the three editors will not be using this volume, but another which includes 450 additional pages of material on problems peculiar to enterprise in corporate form. We think it has teaching advantages for those who have 50 to 75 class hours available, and who want to offer a compact introductions to the vast labyrinths of corporation law. Its corporation materials are also available in a separate volume of about 500 pages, for those who want a brief introduction to corporations, preparatory to advanced studies in Corporate Finance, Business Planning or Securities Regulation. Since this volume is a successor to three editions of “Business Organization,” we owe a debt to the users of those editions for their many helpful suggestions, which have entered at innumerable points into this product. We hope that they and their successors will continue generously to share their ideas and critiques.
Publication Date
1972
Edition
1
Recommended Citation
Conard, Alfred F.; Knauss, Robert L.; and Siegel, Stanley, "Agency, Associations, Employment, Licensing and Partnerships: Cases, Statutes and Analysis on Enterprise Organization" (1972). Faculty Books & Edited Works. 670.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-books-edited-works/670
