COMPANIES IN GENERAL 
and s. 381 (2) of the Companies Act, 1929, under which in 
effect such references will generally be construed as references 
to the corresponding sections of the Companies Act, 1929. 
It must not be forgotten that the Act is a consolidation 
Act, and not a codifying Act (such as the Bills of Exchange 
Act, 1882, the Partnership Act, 1890, and the Sale of Goods 
Act, 1893). Large and important branches of existing 
company law are practically untouched by it, whilst the law 
as to debentures, apart from the matter of registration, is 
only dealt with in a few isolated particulars. 
Accordingly, useful though the Act is, all who are connected 
with the practical working of companies will require to 
supplement their knowledge of the Act by an acquaintance 
with a considerable quantity of additional law, for the most 
part the result of decisions of the Courts. Company law, 
then, is in part statute law, and in part case law; the case 
law comprising not only decisions upon the present statute 
and its predecessors, but also on matters in which the statutes 
play no directly material part. 
The Companies Acts, whilst conferring the boon of limited 
liability, at the same time restricted freedom of action to the 
extent of prohibiting unregistered partnerships of more than 
a certain number. Ss. 357 and 358 of the 1929 Act, re- 
producing the older law, in effect make ten the maximum 
number of persons who may carry on banking business 
together, and twenty the maximum number who may carry 
on any other business together, without registration under 
the Act, or without the sanction of a special Act of Parlia- 
ment or a charter. Mining companies within the stannaries 
are, however, excepted. 
Under the Act, as under the earlier Acts, various descrip- 
tions of companies may be registered (see ss. 1 and 2). These 
are :— 
‘a) Companies limited by shares; 
'b) Companies limited by guarantee, which may either 
(1) have a share capital; or 
(1) not have a share capital; 
(c) Unlimited companies, which may either 
(1) have a share capital; or 
il) not have a share capital. 
As regards companies limited by guarantee not having a Limited by 
share capital, the companies that adopt this method of Guarantee. 
formation are chiefly associations for mutual insurance. or