Bainbridge on Agency, Partnerships & LLCs
The emergence of the limited liability company has kindled renewed interest in unincorporated business associations among legal scholars. This revival was further stimulated by the multiple revisions made to the Uniform Partnership Act in the 1990s. By lending new intellectual respectability to the study of unincorporated business associations, these developments stimulated the supply side of the curricular equilibrium. Courses on unincorporated business associations have thus sprung up at many law schools. A number of very fine casebooks compete for that market, including one co-edited by the author of this volume. This text is intended to provide students taking a course in unincorporated business associations with a reader-friendly, highly accessible overview of the law and economics of unincorporated business associations. In addition, students taking a basic course in corporations or business associations may find this volume helpful as a more expansive treatment of the law of agency, partnership, and limited liability companies. The text does not shy away from bringing theory to bear on doctrine. While the text has a strong emphasis on the doctrinal issues taught in today’s unincorporated business associations classes, it also places significant emphasis on providing an economic analysis of the major issues in that course. Agency, Partnership and Limited Liability Companies thus offers not only with an overview of the black letter law of unincorporated business associations, but also a unifying method of thinking about the subject. Using a few basic tools of law and economics — such as price theory, game theory, and the theory of the firm literature — the reader will come to see the law in this area as the proverbial “seamless web.”
Bainbridge on Corporation Law
Corporations classes present students with two related problems: First, many students have trouble understanding the cases studied because they do not understand the transactions giving rise to those cases. Second, Corporations classes at many law schools are taught from a law and economics perspective, which many students find unfamiliar and/or daunting. Yet, with few exceptions, corporate law treatises and other study aids have essentially ignored the law and economics revolution.
This book is intended to remedy these difficulties. The pedagogy is up-to - date, with a strong emphasis on the doctrinal issues taught in today’s Corporations classes and, equally important, a mainstream economic analysis of the major issues in the course. As such, the text is coherent and cohesive: It provides students not only with an overview of the course, but also (and more importantly) with a unifying method of thinking about the course. Using a few basic tools of law and economics-price theory, game theory, and the theory of the firm literature-students will come to see corporate law as the proverbial “seamless web.” Finally, the text is highly readable: The style is simple, direct, and reader- friendly. Even when dealing with complicated economic or financial issues, the text seeks to make those issues readily accessible.
