As is well known, personal companies are entities that exercise small and medium-sized enterprises. It is also known that these businesses constitute, as it is commonly said, the backbone of the Greek economy and that, consequently, they need an operational and effective legislative framework.

The legislative framework that regulated these companies until today was primarily contained in the provisions of Articles 18-28, 38-50, and 64 of the Commercial Code. This framework remained unchanged since 1835, that is, since the introduction of the French commercial code of 1807 into our country. Of course, the gaps left by the above provisions were largely covered by the analogical application of the provisions of Articles 741-784 of the Civil Code for the civil company.

However, these provisions could not successfully address the problems associated with the corporate conduct of a commercial enterprise, and mainly with the operation of this enterprise by the general and limited partnership, since they were based on the contractual bond between the partners, a bond that by its nature renders the company vulnerable and ready to collapse at any moment. This does not promote entrepreneurial activity. On the contrary, it often leads to the dissolution of even healthy business units.

In response to the above and other further problems, such as the legal treatment of informal and unpublished companies, single-person companies, and the necessity of liquidation, Law 4072/2012 (Articles 249-293) attempted to provide answers. Furthermore, this law aimed to lay new foundations for the limited partnership, the silent company, and for the first time, to regulate the consortium.

Particular mention should be made of the regulations concerning the silent company and the consortium. These regulations, primarily astute, will certainly bring these corporate types out of obscurity and make them valuable tools in the hands of entrepreneurial individuals.

From this position, I would like to thank my colleagues Pliksavra Voiatzoglou and especially Athena Sismanydou for their invaluable assistance during the drafting of the lexical index and the index of legal rules. I owe warm thanks to Sakoula Publications and their collaborators, who gladly undertook and completed this publication with professional diligence.