Roman societas and modern companies models. A comparison between 'atypical' and 'typical' models in the two experiences.

Many modern scholars thought and think that the Roman law of partnership is rather primitive and totally unfit for business and trade. The analysis of legal sources reveals us a different reality. Within the framework of a general model of partnership formed through a typical consensual contract (societas), partners were allowed to insert conventional terms in order to adapt it to their needs or to choose some models having their own special discipline, often forged by the business practice, or also to combine different models. This pluralism of models was due to the development of commercial relations, face to which Roman jurists made an effort of classification thereof, but partners’ autonomy was never limited to one of them. Respect of partners’ autonomy and conformity to business needs also emerged in the lex mercatoria of the Late Middle Age. Only in the following legal experiences up to modern and contemporary times we can find a progressive imposition by the public authorities to choose legal types to form a partnership, in order to assure a State control over it and a stronger protection of partners and third parties. Nevertheless, nowadays such an imposition appears to conflict with world-wide commercial exigencies, that require a more flexible system. In this perspective it might be useful a diachronic comparative approach.