Political economy concerns historical, legal and heterodox economics analysis of complex systems. This article attempts to analyze the current state of the European Union from historical, legal and interdisciplinary economics perspectives. Historically, the ancient Athenian democracy, the Holy...

This chapter sketches the history of EU Company Law, from its beginnings in the 1960s until today. Throughout all periods, EU company law harmonization was largely a top-down, technocratic project that was considered imperative to realize the common market. In other words, it was promoted mainly...

This chapter surveys fiduciary principles in Western European civil law jurisdictions. Focusing on France and Germany, we suggest that functional equivalents to fiduciary duties have developed on the Continent, although they do not always carry exactly the same connotations as their common law...

Fiduciary duties are often today held out as typical instruments of shareholder protection in the common law of both the US and the UK, which are sometimes held out as examples for a consensus model for what is considered good corporate law conducive to good capital market development. However,...

Economic analysis plays a major role in the American legal discourse, while its position in the German-speaking legal debate remains comparatively limited. In Germany and Austria, a widespread aversion against law and economics can be observed among legal scholars. This article advances an...

The European framework for creditor protection has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years. While the ECJ's Centros case and its progeny have introduced free choice with respect to the State of incorporation, and hence the substantive company law regime, the European Insolvency...

Should courts consider cases from other jurisdictions? The use of foreign law precedent has sparked considerable debate in the United States, and this question is also controversially discussed in Europe. In this paper and within the larger research project from which it has developed, we study...

Globalization led to unprecedented risks stemming from global interconnectedness. Economic trade may distribute benefits of international exchange unevenly due to fundamental barriers of distance, national borders and implicit market segmentation. In order to equalize trade prosperity, the...

Climate justice accounts for the most challenging global governance goal. In the current post-COP21 Paris agreement climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, the financialization of the ambitious goals has leveraged into a blatant demand. In the weighting of the burden of global warming,...