Constitutional documents

In relation to juristic persons, the constitutional documents (sometimes referred to as the charter documents) of the entity are the documents which define the existence of the entity and regulate the structure and control of the entity and its members. The precise form of the constitutional documents depends upon the type of entity.

By convention, most common law jurisdictions divide the constitutional documents of companies into two separate documents:

In many countries, only the primary document is filed, and the secondary document remains private. In other countries, both documents are filed.

In civil law jurisdictions, the company's constitution is normally consolidated into a single document, often called the charter.

It is quite common for members of a company to supplement the corporate constitution with additional arrangements, such as shareholders' agreements, whereby they agree to exercise their membership rights in a certain way. Conceptually a shareholders' agreement fulfills many of the same functions as the corporate constitution, but because it is a contract, it will not normally bind new members of the company unless they accede to it somehow. One benefit of shareholders' agreement is that they will usually be confidential, as most jurisdictions do not require shareholders' agreements to be publicly filed.

Another common method of supplementing the corporate constitution is by means of voting trusts, although these are relatively uncommon outside of the United States and certain offshore jurisdictions.

Partnerships also have constitutional documents in the form of a partnership agreement. In some jurisdictions, a more formal constitution, sometimes referred to as articles of partnership or a partnership deed is used (particularly where the partnership has certain corporate aspects, such as a Limited Liability Partnership). However, many partnerships are not created formally, and may have no written partnership agreement and leave the regulation of the partnership to be regulated in accordance with the understandings of the parties and by general law. Some of the largest partnerships in the world have no written partnership agreement.

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