An Economic and Jurisprudential Genealogy of Corporate Law. By Michael J. Whincop. [Aldershot: Ashgate. 2001. xviii, 222, (Bibliography) 20 and (Index) 5 pp. Hardback £45. ISBN 1–84014–773–3.

Abstract

Economic analysis has recently gained a high profile in English company law scholarship, not least through its employment by the Law Commissions and its resonance with the Company Law Review. This approach has taught us much about how company law functions in relation to the marketplace. Whincop’s book is, however, the first attempt to use economic methodology not only to explain how the law functions, but also to provide an evolutionary account of why the history of English company law followed the path it did. The result is a thesis that, whilst complex, has a powerful intuitive appeal for those familiar with Victorian company law judgments.