Partnership and company law governs the external and internal
relations of partnerships and companies formed under private law.
Under German partnership and company law there is a co-called
“numerus clausus (limited number)” of forms of company,
i.e. the statutory enumeration of the possible forms that
partnerships and companies can take under German law is conclusive.
A choice can be made amongst, for instance, (commercial)
partnerships (CPs) like the Civil Law Partnership (CLP), the
Unlimited Partnership (UP) and the Partly Limited Partnership
(PLP), and share capital companies (SCCs) like the Public Limited
Company (PuLC) or the Private Limited Company (PrLC).
The legal foundations for forming these companies are to be found
in numerous special statutes like the Share Capital Companies and
Partnerships Act (in German:
Aktiengesetz), the Private Limited Companies Act
(PrLCA, in German: Gesetz betreffend die Gesellschaften mit
beschränkter Haftung /
GmbHG), or the Commercial Code (ComC, in German:
Handelsgesetzbuch /
HGB); the general provisions of the Civil Code (CC, in
German:
Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuchs) also apply on a
subsidiary level.
