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Abstract:
The history of Australian company law has attracted remarkably little attention in academic literature, perhaps because it has been mainly seen as a copy of English law with few if any important features worthy of note. This paper seeks to point out several interesting and significant aspects of the evolution of Australian company law and to consider this evolution in the context of the economic development of colonial Australia. Australian company law represents an example of the transplant of English law. This raises the question whether this transplant of law was successful. The central contention of this paper is that the evolution of company law in colonial Australia was innovative and responsive to the economic needs of the society and in particular, it was instrumental in financing the development of the mining industry which played an important role in the economic success of colonial Australia.
Company Law, Colonial Australia, Australian company law, English law
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Abstract:
This paper traces the evolution of the joint stock company from its origins to the end of the eighteenth century and presents an historical analysis of the evolution of the joint stock company from the perspective of institutional change. The related theoretical concepts of institutions, institutional evolution and path dependency, which describes the mechanism by which institutional change occurs, are discussed in Parts II and III. The paper then provides a narrative of the historical development of the joint stock company from its origins to 1800 in Part IV. Part V seeks to interpret the evolution of the joint stock company in the light of theories of institutional evolution and change. The discussion in this Part considers the economic context in which the joint stock company evolved and the relationship between this evolution and economic developments which were taking place.
legal history, legal evolution, corporate law history, joint stock company, institutional change, Bubble Act of 1720.
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