Preface

• Date: 01 January 2010
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC74126
• Published date: 01 January 2010
• Pages: V-

v

PREFACE

Although some academic writers still deem it meet to refer to the com-

mon law partnership as one of the most important forms of enterprise

in the business world, it is also clear that the unincorporated partner-

ship has long lost pre-eminence as a vehicle for associated commer-

cial enterprise, largely because of the relative advantages of incor-

poration and especially since the introduction of the very successful

Close Corporations Act 69 of 1984. Hence the predisposition to view

the subject of partnership law in the same light as Ebenezer Scrooge

regarded his famous partner Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol, i.e.

an unnecessary reminder of times past. If this view is tenable for the

law of partnership in the United Kingdom, then surely the compara-

tive tendency must be to consider the topic the South African law of

partnership and as the very incarnation of times best forgotten.

To counteract this decline in interest in the law of partnership, this

volume highlights historical and comparative perspectives a number

of selected contentious issues in the hope that it will contribute to rein-

vigorating advanced research on the law of partnership in general.

Prof J J Henning

Bloemfontein

August 2010