After a slow start, the European Company (Societas Europaea, SE) has become increasingly popular. Beside documenting the growth of this new company type, we examine whether firms choose to incorporate in the SE corporate form because they engage in 'legal arbitrage' by exploiting differences in...

With its recent legislation on consumer ADR and ODR, the European Union (EU) pioneers the creation of a comprehensive out-of-court dispute resolution system for B2C conflicts. The proposed system raises questions as to how consumer rights can and should be efficiently enforced. We propose design...

The European Commission has proposed a directive on ‘preventive restructuring frameworks' for financially distressed firms. I demonstrate that the proposal is flawed because it creates a refuge for failing firms that should be liquidated, because it rules out going concern sales for viable...

The United Kingdom will leave the European Union. Brexit will involve many complex negotiations. This paper analyses the negotiation position of the parties (UK, EU, Member States) based on a set of four key negotiation factors: agreement options, non-agreement alternatives, interests, and...

Two events are currently changing the landscape for business restructurings in the European Union: the “Restructuring Recommendation” (RR) of the European Commission, issued in 2014, and the 2015 recast of the European Insolvency Regulation (EIR). In this paper, we critically review the RR...

When Council Regulation (EC) No 2157/2001 on the Statute for a European Company (Societas Europaea - SE) became effective on 8 October 2004, it offered publicly traded companies, for the first time, a choice between competing company laws, namely the national law of the company’s home state...