This article will discuss Union regulatory approaches to cross-border mergers in the light of the fundamental freedom of establishment (Art.49 TFEU). The aim of this article is to explore the dynamics and the impact on the internal market of the multi-faceted interaction between the secondary...

In recent years there have been two parallel discussions taking place in the US and in the UK about the role which institutional shareholders should play in governing the corporation. In the US this discussion is around the idea of shareholder empowerment, in the UK it is around shareholder...

When things go wrong, it is always good to find someone to blame. As the credit crisis started to unfold in 2007, credit rating agencies (“CRAs”) emerged as the villain – or scapegoat, one might say – for commentators and regulators alike. To sum up, observers accused CRAs of doing a...

Today's most pressing constitutional question is posed by a global economic system whose expansive tendencies seem no longer controllable. The current financial/debt crisis has triggered diverse reactions in the political arena ranging from the reformist ordo‐liberal approach followed by...

Money laundering has become a phenomenon of financial market regulation. The obligation to identify the ultimate beneficiary, or the beneficiary owner, which need not be entirely synonymous terms, has been the focus for both national authorities and international organizations. However, such...

Long before the current financial and economic crisis, corporate governance and securities regulation had become part of one of the most interesting and dynamic regulatory areas in law and policy making today. Both areas had been undergoing dramatic transformations over the past 30-40 years,...

This article reports on a study of potential systemic bias in the resolution of ambiguous legal issues by investment treaty arbitrators. It outlines tentative but significant findings that the arbitrators in general tended to favour (a) foreign investors over states in general, (b) foreign...

In explaining the concept of centre of main interests (COMI) within the UK Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 (CBIR), the Englush court in Re Stanford International Bank over-emphasised third-party ascertainability due to an apparent lack of appreciation of the different functions...

For many years, the rise in number of international units operated by U.S. franchisors has outpaced domestic growth. As the trend toward globalization accelerates, franchise owners must determine the most effective methods to protect their intellectual property rights wherever they do business....

The role and position of shareholders within a listed public company has been a subject of debate on both the national and the international level for decades. This debate focuses primarily on the rights that are, or perhaps, should be conferred upon shareholders in such a company and,...