This article explains the complexities behind legal forms and provides information on the existing lists.
What are legal forms?
Legal forms can be thought of as a "constitution" for companies, outlining their fundamental structure and operational rules. The way these forms work varies widely across countries, with some having centuries-old histories that have resulted in a complex array of company types. For example, "AG" (Aktiengesellschaft) in Germany is a different entity compared to the "AG" in Austria, even though they share the same abbreviation.
The challenge of tracking legal forms
Currently, there is no comprehensive list available, that covers all legal forms. Efforts such as those by GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation) and the European Central Bank have tried to create standardized lists, like the ISO 20275 Entity Legal Forms (ELF) code list, but these are still incomplete. The complexity arises from the nature of legal forms, which differ significantly from one country to another.
For instance, Germany allows for stacked or combined legal forms (e.g., GmbH & Co. KG), creating theoretically infinite variations. Furthermore, some legal forms may only exist for a single company or evolve over time (like SAU in Spain, which is a specialized version of SA). Thus, it’s difficult to establish a finite and static list of all legal forms.
You can find more information on legal forms and how we stote them in this github documentation.