Europe's inspired journey : destination Delaware?

• Main Author: Bettinger, Nicole
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 2005
• Subjects: Corporation law > European Union countries; Corporation law > United States.; Jurisdiction > European Union countries.; Jurisdiction > United States.
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=83947

Under the Treaty Establishing the European Community, corporations are entitled to free establishment. Recently, the European Court of Justice's Inspire Art decision has clarified its scope and has in principle introduced place of incorporation doctrine as choice-of-law rule, thus granting corporations free choice of the Member State of incorporation. In the US, free choice has caused the "Delaware Effect". This paper analyzes if Inspire Art will cause a similar development in the EU. The EU and US contexts will be compared. Germany will serve as an example. As different circumstances exist in the EU, free choice is more limited and fraught with uncertainties. The thesis of this paper is that regulatory competition in the EU is unlikely and not desirable because of cultural differences. Therefore, minimum harmonization is preferable.