The societas publicanorum and corporate personality in roman private law

Geoffrey Poitras and Frederick Willeboordse

Business History, 2021, vol. 63, issue 7, 1055-1078

Abstract: This article demonstrates the often-repeated modern claim that the societas publicanorum had the corporate personality of a joint-stock company with tradeable shares lacks grounding in commercial context and Roman private law. After reviewing the concept of corporate personality and the historical evolution of the Roman societas, the discussion traces the claim of joint-stock personality to unsupported interpretations of the sources, especially In Vatinium [29], by 19th century philologists. An alternative more plausible commercial and legal explanation for the corporate personality of the societas publicanorum is provided by an organisation of Roman tax farming that employed a societas maior connecting a network of societates and familias.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2019.1656719

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