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Creating the Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada: The Use of Legal Flexibility in Spanish Company Law, 1869–1953

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Abstract

Spain approved the first law of Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada (SRL)—a legal form similar to the German GmbH—in 1953. However, the SRL had already been used, albeit without its own legislation, since the 1920s. How was this possible in a country whose legal system was based on civil law? Its 1885 Commercial Code lacked the numerus clausus principle for enterprise forms, a feature that gave entrepreneurs unusual freedom in organizing their firms, and in adopting new business forms not defined in the code. It also invites us to rethink the notion of rigidity in civil law.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2016 

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29 Lamoreaux and Rosenthal, “Legal Regime,” 37.

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41 The following are cases from companies' books in the business register of Barcelona. J. Roca y Cía. (license no. 1049, 1884) was a limited partnership transformed into a corporation (no. 1051, 1888) and named Cía Marítima, SA. Maratona Dibi y Cía. (no. 1707, 1890) was first a limited partnership and later became a corporation (1905) and was named Aguas Potables de Vilafranca. Azucarera de Vich was a corporation, but previously it had been a limited partnership, first named Torres y AYM Planas (no. 1724, 1890) and, a few months later, Miret y AYM Planas SCM (no. 1728, 1890). Data collected by Guinanne and Martínez-Rodríguez, “Choice of Enterprise Form.”

42 Lorenzo Benito, Manual de Derecho Mercantil, vol. 1, 3rd ed. (Madrid, 1924); Gary W. McDonough, Las buenas familias de Barcelona: Historia social de poder en la era industrial (Barcelona, 1988).

43 An example was Compañía Telefónica Montañesa, as seen in the company's books in the business register of Madrid (no. 4056, 1920). The founders were all relatives: Leopoldo Gálvez, María José Gálvez Rubio de Villejas, and Roberto Gálvez Rubio de Villejas. Data collected by Guinanne and Martínez-Rodríguez, “Choice of Enterprise Form.” After 1916, information regarding corporations was published in yearbooks; see Anuario Financiero y de Sociedades Anónimas (Madrid, 1916–).

44 José María González de Echávarri y Vivanco, Comentarios al Código de Comercio y Jurisprudencia española (Valladolid, Spain, 1941); José Antonio Viera González, Las sociedades de capital cerradas (Pamplona, 2002).

45 José Del Cueto, De la Sociedad Civil con formas mercantiles (Havana, 1891).

46 Data from Guinanne and Martínez-Rodríguez, “Choice of Enterprise Form.” In 1920, the exchange rate was 23.30 pesetas per British pound and 6.37 pesetas per U.S. dollar. Pablo Martín and María de los Angeles Pons, “Sistema financiero y monetario,” in Estadísticas Históricas de España, siglo 19 y 20, ed. Albert Carreras and Xavier Tafunell (Bilbao, 2005), 705.

47 The total number of SRLs enrolled in Madrid (1920–1936) was 754. The number of civil societies with limited liability was 22. Guinnane and Martínez-Rodríguez, “Making Up the Rules.”

48 Del Cueto, De la Sociedad Civil, 39.

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62 Arruñada, “Institutional Support,” 4.

63 General Directorate of Registers and Notaries resolutions consulted are published in Repertorio de Legislación Aranzadi (Madrid, 1930– ). Supreme Court decisions are published in Jurisprudencia Civil: Colección Completa de las Sentencias Dictadas por el Tribunal Supremo (Madrid, 1861– ).

64 Cándido Paz-Ares, “¿Cómo entendemos y cómo hacemos derecho de sociedades?” in Tratado de la sociedad limitada (Madrid, 1997), 159–206.

65 Commercial courts worked until 1868 in Spain and only at the local level.

66 Rubin, “Why Is the Common Law Efficient?” 51–63.

67 Benito, Manual de Derecho Mercantil, 256–57; Peter W. Rea, Resoluciones de la Dirección General del Registro y el Notariado sobre la reforma mercantil (Madrid, 1992), 17–30.

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71 “(580) Resolución de la Dirección General del Registro y el Notariado, 16-4-1942,” Repertorio de Legislación (Pamplona, 1942).

72 “(112) Resolución de la Dirección General del Registro y el Notariado, 15-1-1945,” Repertorio de Legislación (Pamplona, 1946).

73 “(238) Resolución de la Dirección General del Registro y el Notariado, 12-12-1945,” Repertorio de Legislación (Pamplona, 1946).

74 “(342) Resolución de la Dirección General del Registro y el Notariado, 9-3-1943,” Repertorio de Legislación (Pamplona, 1944).

75 “(276) Resolución de la Dirección General del Registro y el Notariado, 14-7-1933,” Repertorio de Legislación (Pamplona, 1934).

76 “(966) Resolución de la Dirección General del Registro y el Notariado, 11-8-1943,” Repertorio de Legislación (Pamplona, 1944).

77 “Sentencia del Tribunal Supremo, 17-11-1928,” Repertorio de Legislación (Pamplona, 1929).

78 Enrique Taulet, Sociedades de Responsabilidad Limitada, Conferencia en el Colegio Notarial de Barcelona (Barcelona, 1947), 18; Roces, “Prólogo.”

79 “(94) Sentencia del Tribunal Supremo, 4-2-1929,” Jurisprudencia Civil: Colección Completa de las Sentencias Dictadas por el Tribunal Supremo (Madrid, 1930).

80 “Resolución de la Dirección General del Registro y el Notariado, 11-8-1943,” Repertorio de Legislación (Pamplona, 1944).

81 Taulet, Sociedades, 18; Felipe Solá, Tratado de Sociedades de Responsabilidad Limitada (Barcelona, 1951), 99; José Roig, Sociedades de Responsabilidad Limitada (Barcelona, 1923).

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83 “(94) Sentencia del Tribunal Supremo, 4-2-1929,” Jurisprudencia (Madrid, 1930).

84 Taulet, Sociedades, 18.

85 “(78) Sentencia del Tribunal Supremo, 5-7-1940,” Jurisprudencia Civil (Madrid, 1941).

86 “(58) Sentencia del Tribunal Supremo, 18-2-1948,” Jurisprudencia Civil (Madrid, 1949); “(233) Sentencia del Tribunal Supremo, 19-6-1952,” Jurisprudencia Civil (Madrid, 1953).

87 Joaquín Garrigues, the head of the team that drafted the two laws, belonged to the group of intellectuals that supported the totalitarian and antiliberal doctrines prior to the Civil War. Martínez-Rodríguez, “Sin ley.”