A significant debate rages within the EU about whether to give firms the choice to opt in or out of corporate law provisions. Both sides agree that more flexibility and adaptability of legal rules to business needs is crucial. Nevertheless, and not surprisingly, many still view EU mandatory...

The paper describes the European Model Company Law Project. Last year, a commission was formed on the initiative of the authors with the goal of drafting a European Model Company Law Act (EMCLA). This project aims neither to force a mandatory harmonization of national company law nor to create a...

European Company Law has been experiencing rapid development in recent years. In 2003 the European Commission published a first action plan on the further integration of company law in Europe: Modernising Company Law and Enhancing Corporate Governance in the European Union - A Plan to Move...

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...