Q.State and explain any four essential features of a joint stock company.

A short answer only needs four of the nine features covered in this chapter, briefly explained — separate legal entity, perpetual succession, limited liability, and transferability of shares are a strong, representative set.

Explain each feature in one or two lines, grounding each in why it matters practically.

1. Separate legal entity. A company's legal identity is entirely distinct from that of its members — the company's debts and assets are its own, never its shareholders' personal debts or property (Salomon v. Salomon & Co. Ltd., 1897).

2. Perpetual succession. The company's existence continues unaffected by the death, exit, or insolvency of any individual member, director, or officer, until it is formally wound up by due legal process — 'members may come and members may go, but the company goes on forever.'

3. Limited liability. In a company limited by shares, once a member has paid the full face value of the shares they hold, their personal assets can never be called upon to meet the company's debts, however large those debts may later become.

4. Transferability of shares. Shares are, in principle, transferable property — freely so for a public company, subject to restriction by the Articles for a private company — giving a member a way to exit their investment without needing to dissolve the business itself.

(A student may equally choose any four of the other features covered in this chapter — artificial legal person, optional common seal, separate property, or capacity to sue and be sued — with the same brief explanation approach.)