David Gindis

Associate Professor

Company Law; Corporate Governance; Corporate Personality Controversy; Legal Institutionalism; Law and Economics; History of the Law & Economics Movement

School of Law
S1.30, Social Sciences Building
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom

024 765 74551

Office hours: Tue 1-2pm, Wed 11-12 am

Scholarship

David's research into the nexus between legal and socioeconomic features of business firms lies at the intersections of company law, corporate governance, law and economics, and institutional theory. He has been particularly interested in the corporate personality controversy, and is currently working on a book project entitled The Nexus and the Mask: A Legal-Economic Theory of the Firm (Edward Elgar). In parallel, David is exploring extensions of the Ostroms' notions of commons and polycentric governance to corporations and other organisational forms. A co-edited volume on Governing Corporate Knowledge Commons (Cambridge University Press) is in the works. David is also working on the history of the law and economics movement, with a specific focus on how Henry Manne's entrepreneurial efforts helped spread and legitimise economic reasoning in American legal education.

Bio

Prior to joining Warwick Law School in 2023, David was an Associate Professor at the University of Hertfordshire Business School, which he joined as a Lecturer in Economics in 2011, having previously taught at various higher education institutions in France. He holds a BA (Licence), an MA (Maîtrise), and an MPhil (DEA) in Economics from the University of Lyon Lumière, and completed his PhD in Institutional Economics at the University of Hertfordshire. David is a recipient of the Herbert Simon Young Scholar Prize (European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy, 2008) and the History of Economic Analysis Award (European Society for the History of Economic Thought, 2021). He edits the Corporate Law section of PhilPapers, and is a co-founder and the current Secretary of the World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research (WINIRLink opens in a new window), which brings together scholars of institutions and institutional thought from across the social sciences and the humanities.

Publications

Gindis, David, Micheler, Eva, Gindis, David, Micheler, Eva, 2024. Institutional theory for corporate law : an invitation. Journal of Corporate Law Studies
Gindis, David, Singer, Abraham A., 2023. The corporate baby in the bathwater : why proposals to abolish corporate personhood are misguided. Journal of Business Ethics, 183 (4), pp. 983-997
Gindis, David, Gagliardi, Francesca, 2022. Co-operatives for sustainable development. Journal of Co-operative Studies, 55 (2), pp. 43-46
Gibbs-Kneller, David, Gindis, David, Whayman, Derek, 2022. Not by contract alone : the contractarian theory of the corporation and the paradox of implied terms. European Business Organization Law Review, 23 (3), pp. 573-601
Deakin, Simon, Gindis, David, Hodgson, Geoffrey M., 2021. What is a firm? a reply to Jean-Philippe Robé. Journal of Institutional Economics, 17 (5), pp. 861-871
Gindis, David, 2020. Ernst Freund as precursor of the rational study of corporate law. Journal of Institutional Economics, 16 (5), pp. 597-621
Gindis, David, 2020. Conceptualizing the business corporation : insights from history. Journal of Institutional Economics, 16 (5), pp. 569-577
Gindis, David, 2020. On the origins, meaning and influence of Jensen and Meckling?s definition of the firm. Oxford Economic Papers, 72 (4), pp. 966-984
Gindis, David, Veldman, Jeroen, Willmott, Hugh, 2020. Convergent and divergent trajectories of corporate governance. Competition & Change, 24 (5), pp. 399-407
Gindis, David, Gibbs-Kneller, David, 2019. De jure convergence, de facto divergence : a comparison of factual implementation of shareholder derivative suit enforcement in the United States and the United Kingdom. European Business Law Review, 30 (6), pp. 909-930
Hodgson, Geoffrey M., Gagliardi, Francesca, Gindis, David, 2018. From Cambridge Keynesian to institutional economist : the unnoticed contributions of Robert Neild. Journal of Institutional Economics, 14 (4), pp. 767-786
Deakin, Simon, Gindis, David, Hodgson, Geoffrey M., Huang, Kainan, Pistor, Katharina, 2017. Legal institutionalism : capitalism and the constitutive role of law. Journal of Comparative Economics, 45 (1), pp. 188-200
Gindis, David, 2016. Legal personhood and the firm : avoiding anthropomorphism and equivocation. Journal of Institutional Economics, 12 (3), pp. 499-513
Gagliardi, Francesca, Gindis, David, 2011. Overcoming the impasse in modern economics. Competition and Change, 15 (4), pp. 336-342
Gindis, David, 2009. From fictions and aggregates to real entities in the theory of the firm. Journal of Institutional Economics, 5 (01), pp. 25-46

Gindis, David, Petrin, Martin, 2020. Economic analysis of corporate law. In Marciano, Alain; Ramello, Giovanni Battista (eds.), Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, Springer, pp. 1-7
Gagliardi, Francesca, Gindis, David, Hodgson, Geoffrey M., 2019. A conversation with Geoff Hodgson. In Gagliardi, Francesca; Gindis, David (eds.), Institutions and Evolution of Capitalism, Edward Elgar, pp. 328-352
Gagliardi, Francesca, Gindis, David, 2019. Institutions and evolution of capitalism in Geoff Hodgson?s work. In Gagliardi, Francesca; Gindis, David (eds.), Institutions and Evolution of Capitalism, Edward Elgar, pp. 2-12

Deakin, Simon, Gindis, David, Hodgson, Geoffrey M., 2022. A further reply to Jean-Philippe Robé on the firm. Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, pp. 703-706
Gindis, David, 2022. Review of The theory of transaction in institutional economics : a history by Massimiliano Vatiero. History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, pp. 181-186
Gindis, David, 2022. Review of Corporate personhood by Susanna Kim Ripken. Law & Society Review, Wiley, pp. 155-157
Gindis, David, 2021. Review of Relentless : the forensics of mobsters' business practices by Jerold Zimmerman and Daniel Forrester. Economic Affairs, Wiley, pp. 349-350
Mansell, Samuel, Ferguson, John, Gindis, David, Pasternak, Avia, 2019. Rethinking corporate agency in business, philosophy, and law. Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, pp. 893-899
Gindis, David, 2018. Review of Andrew Carnegie : an economic biography by Samuel Bostaph. Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, pp. 144-146
Hodgson, Geoffrey, Gindis, David, 2007. An interview with Oliver Williamson. Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, pp. 373-386

Highlighted

Gindis, David, Hodgson, Geoffrey M. 2025. The legal nature of the firm. In Josef Windsperger, Aveed Raha (eds.), Research Handbook on the Theory of the Firm, Edward Elgar (In Press)
Gindis, David, Micheler, Eva. 2024. Institutional theory for corporate law: an invitation. Journal of Corporate Law Studies (In Press)
Gindis, David, Medema, Steven G. 2024. One man a committee does not make: Henry Manne, the AEA-AALS joint committee, and the struggle to institutionalize law and economics. History of Political Economy (In Press)
Gindis, David, Singer, Abraham A. 2023. The corporate baby in the bathwater: why proposals to abolish corporate personhood are misguided. Journal of Business Ethics,183(4), pp. 983-997
Gibbs-Kneller, David, Gindis, David, Whayman, Derek. 2022. Not by contract alone: the contractarian theory of the corporation and the paradox of implied terms. European Business Organization Law Review, 23 (3), pp. 573-601
Gindis, David. 2020. On the origins, meaning and influence of Jensen and Meckling's definition of the firm. Oxford Economic Papers, 72 (4), pp. 966-984
Gagliardi, Francesca, Gindis, David, eds. 2019. Institutions and evolution of capitalism: Essays in honour of Geoffrey M. Hodgson. 2019. Edward Elgar. ISBN 9781785364990

Teaching Research Supervision

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD supervisees. However, please ensure that you have a research proposal which corresponds with the University of Warwick School of Law requirements.

I am happy to consider PhD projects focusing on:

Company law and comparative corporate governance, especially if there is a law & economics or an institutional theory focus;
The legal, socioeconomic, political, and philosophical foundations and implications of corporate personality;
The relationships between legal and economic phenomena or between legal and economic discourse;
The history of the field of law & economics.