European studies - Studi europei

Il corso avrà ad oggetto i seguenti temi: 1) Introduction to the course European Company Law Methodology of the Course Sources of the European Company Law Types and Functions of Companies The distinction between closely held and publicly traded corporations/companies. Law versus Contract incorporate affairs. Mandatory Law versus Default Provisions. Regulatory Competition. Common structures of Corporations/Companies: legal personality; limited liability; transferability of shares; investor ownership. 2) Cross-Border Establishment and Corporate Mobility - Real seat theory and incorporation theory - Right of primary Establishment (Daily Mail, Überseering, Sevic, Cartesio, Vale, Polbud Cases) 3) Right of secondary Establishment (Segers, Centros, Inspire Art Cases) - Cross-border conversion (Vale, Polbud cases). The recent EU directive on cross-border conversion, merger and division. - The current Debate: twenty years after Centros decision. Cross-border conversion in Dir. 2019/2121 4) Formation of a new company - Setting up a new company: instrument of incorporation- articles of association – preventive control – registration Validity of obligations entered into by the company Nullity of the Company Private companies/public companies/State owned companies Cases: Job Centre I and II; Ubbong Isolatie BV 5) The essential elements of the company’s financial structure. The concept of company capital; the differences in this regard between continental European and Anglo-American company law; the debate on the advantages and inconveniences of capital-based company law systems compared to those that ignore this concept; the imposition by law of a minimum capital; capital formation and capital contributions; capital maintenance: recapitalise or liquidate rule and its role 6) Capital maintenance - Dividend distribution - Non mandatory capital reduction - Transaction on the company’s own shares - Financial assistance Companies with symbolic capital in European law. 7) Annual and consolidated accounts - annual accounts; - accounting principles; - IAS/IFRS principles; - Consolidated accounts - Audit 8) Corporate Governance - What is Corporate Governance? - ECL corporate governance goals (transparency and engagement of shareholders); - one tier vs. two tier systems. - Board of directors - boards in listed companies; - Directors’ liability - Conflict of interests - Powers of representation - executive remuneration; - statutory audit; 9) Shareholders’ meeting - Shareholders powers; - Shareholders/Directors relation; - procedure; - listed companies and empty voting; - one share-one vote rule and its abandonment; - capital increase and pre-emptive rights of shareholders; - equal treatment of shareholders; 10) Shareholders’ Right Directives - Shareholder Primacy 11) Mergers and Divisions - EU Directives - Types of mergers and divisions - Cross-border operations - Equal treatment of shareholders and squeeze-out 12) The Cross-border Merger Directive 13) Takeover regulation; - Mandatory bid rule and equity treatment of shareholders - Breakthrough rule and poison pills - Passivity rule - Squeeze-out and sell-out rights 14) Uniform Company Law - EEIG - Societas Europaea

Sebbene non siano previste propedeuticità in senso formale, è opportuno aver sostenuto già almeno un esame nell'area privatistica. È necessaria infatti la conoscenza di base del diritto privato (in particolare, della proprietà, dei contratti, della rappresentanza) e di alcune nozioni di diritto societario, almeno di base, come pure una buona conoscenza della lingua inglese (livello minimo: B2).

Textbook: N. DE LUCA, European Company Law – Text, Cases and Materials, Cambridge University Press, 2021 [Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 (except 16.6 and following), 18, 19] OR A. VICARI, European Company Law, De Gruyter, 2021 [Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14] The students are also required to take into account the most recent legislative sources, in particular Directive (UE) 2017/1132. Some European Court of Justice’s cases will also made available to the students. Suggested readings (optional): • L. Enriques, EC company law directives and regulations: how trivial are they?, in University of Pennsylvania journal of economic law, 2006, 1.; • J. Armour – H. Hansmann – R. Kraakman, The Essential Elements of Corporate Law, available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1436551 • M. Gelter, Centros, the Freedom of Establishment for Companies, and the Court's Accidental Vision for Corporate Law, available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2564765 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2564765 • Enriques-Macey, Creditors versus Capital Formation: the case against the European Legal Capital Rules, 2001, available at http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu • Miola, Legal Capital and Limited Liability Companies: The European Perspective, in ECFR, 2005. • G.E. Colombo, International Accounting Principles (IAS/IFRS), Share Capital and Net Worth, ECFR, 2007, 553 ff.; • Hopt, 2015, Corporate Governance in Europe: A Critical Review of the European Commission's Initiatives on Corporate Law and Corporate Governance, available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2644156; • Belcredi, Ferrarini, The European corporate governance framework: issues and perspectives, ECGI Working paper, 2013, at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2264990 • L. Bebchuck, The Case for increasing Shareholder Power, Discussion Paper No. 500, 12/2004, in Harvard Law Review, Vol. 118, 2005, p. 833-917, at http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/olin_center/ • J. Schmidt, Cross border mergers, divisions and conversions: accomplishments and deficits of the company law package, in ECFR, 2019, • Heidenmuller, The Rise and Fall of Regulatory Competition in Corporate Insolvency Law in the European Union, in ECFR, 2019; • Zhang, Preventive Restructuring Frameworks: A Possible Solution for Financially Distressed Multinational Corporate Groups in the EU, in EBOR, 2019 • Lombardo-Pasotti, The Societas Europaea: a Network Economics Approach, ECFR, 2004

Il metodo utilizzato è quello della didattica frontale (anche attraverso strumenti telematici per corsi a distanza), attraverso lezioni volte ad inquadrare gli istituti in un contesto sistematico, tenendo conto sempre dei rapporti con il diritto europeo e con l’evoluzione degli ordinamenti interni. Durante il corso sarà inoltre distribuito del materiale normativo, dottrinale e giurisprudenziale. Durante l'emergenza sanitaria Covid-19 il corso è stato tenuto in modalità mista, quando consentito, o a distanza. La frequenza delle lezioni, pur se facoltativa, è fortemente incoraggiata al fine di consentire il pieno conseguimento degli obiettivi formativi.

Durante l'emergenza sanitaria Covid-19 il corso è tenuto in modalità mista, quando consentito, o a distanza. La frequenza delle lezioni, pur se facoltativa, è fortemente incoraggiata al fine di consentire il pieno conseguimento degli obiettivi formativi.

La prova finale consiste in una prova scritta. Per i frequentanti è prevista una valutazione in itinere, facoltativa. La prova scritta può consistere in domande a risposta multipla, o in domande a risposta aperta su temi oggetto del programma, o nell’analisi di una pronuncia della Corte di Giustizia. Per superare l’esame è necessario dimostrare di aver acquisito una conoscenza sufficiente dei principali temi relativi al diritto societario europeo. Per conseguire un punteggio elevato è richiesta una conoscenza della disciplina positiva, dei temi all’attenzione del dibattito e della relativa giurisprudenza di livello elevato o eccellente, la capacità di collegamento sistematico tra i vari temi, e la capacità di fornire un punto di vista autonomo

Textbook: N. DE LUCA, European Company Law – Text, Cases and Materials, Cambridge University Press, 2021 [Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 (except 16.6 and following), 18, 19] OR A. VICARI, European Company Law, De Gruyter, 2021 [Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14] The students are also required to take into account the most recent legislative sources, in particular Directive (UE) 2017/1132. Some European Court of Justice’s cases will also made available to the students. Suggested readings (optional): • L. Enriques, EC company law directives and regulations: how trivial are they?, in University of Pennsylvania journal of economic law, 2006, 1.; • J. Armour – H. Hansmann – R. Kraakman, The Essential Elements of Corporate Law, available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1436551 • M. Gelter, Centros, the Freedom of Establishment for Companies, and the Court's Accidental Vision for Corporate Law, available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2564765 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2564765 • Enriques-Macey, Creditors versus Capital Formation: the case against the European Legal Capital Rules, 2001, available at http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu • Miola, Legal Capital and Limited Liability Companies: The European Perspective, in ECFR, 2005. • G.E. Colombo, International Accounting Principles (IAS/IFRS), Share Capital and Net Worth, ECFR, 2007, 553 ff.; • Hopt, 2015, Corporate Governance in Europe: A Critical Review of the European Commission's Initiatives on Corporate Law and Corporate Governance, available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2644156; • Belcredi, Ferrarini, The European corporate governance framework: issues and perspectives, ECGI Working paper, 2013, at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2264990 • L. Bebchuck, The Case for increasing Shareholder Power, Discussion Paper No. 500, 12/2004, in Harvard Law Review, Vol. 118, 2005, p. 833-917, at http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/olin_center/ • J. Schmidt, Cross border mergers, divisions and conversions: accomplishments and deficits of the company law package, in ECFR, 2019, • Heidenmuller, The Rise and Fall of Regulatory Competition in Corporate Insolvency Law in the European Union, in ECFR, 2019; • Zhang, Preventive Restructuring Frameworks: A Possible Solution for Financially Distressed Multinational Corporate Groups in the EU, in EBOR, 2019 • Lombardo-Pasotti, The Societas Europaea: a Network Economics Approach, ECFR, 2004

Il metodo utilizzato è quello della didattica frontale (anche attraverso strumenti telematici per corsi a distanza), attraverso lezioni volte ad inquadrare gli istituti in un contesto sistematico, tenendo conto sempre dei rapporti con il diritto europeo e con l’evoluzione degli ordinamenti interni. Durante il corso sarà inoltre distribuito del materiale normativo, dottrinale e giurisprudenziale. A causa del perdurare dell'emergenza sanitaria Covid-19, e per consentire la partecipazione degli studenti della ZUEL, Cina, il corso è tenuto in modalità mista. La frequenza delle lezioni, pur se facoltativa, è fortemente incoraggiata al fine di consentire il pieno conseguimento degli obiettivi formativi.