The “Banco Espírito Santo” (BES) was oldest and one of the largest Portuguese banks: it was created in 1869, precisely at the same year that Goldman Sachs was founded, and it was resolved in 2014.The present paper aims to briefly explain how a centenary bank, that survived to two World...

The Portuguese banking system was until very recently ignored. As happened with the banking systems of other small economies, it was a common belief of both politicians and regulators that it was just too small to matter to the outside world. Today, after the financial crisis on 2008, we know...

The corporate group is the prevailing organizational form of the modern large enterprise. To deal with intragroup liability problems means to scrutinise the legitimacy of the extension of the “sacred cows” of classical corporation law, in particular the deep-seated institutions of the legal...

The members of the former Reflection Group on the Future of EU Company Law, which published its report in April 2011, decided to publish their views on the “Action Plan on European Company Law and Corporate Governance” of the European Commission of 12 December 2012 as well as subsequent and...

This Report, the work of the "Reflection Group on the Future of EU Company Law" set up by the European Commission in December 2010, addresses current problems and trends in EU company law and makes recommendations for legislative initiatives to be undertaken at the EU level. The Report, after...

More than twenty-five years after the enactment of the Code of Commercial Companies in Portugal, the author provides a general overview of this branch of law under a “law and economics” approach, in particular concerning the formation, financing, governance and restructuring of corporations.