Issuer Choice in Europe

Cambridge Law Journal, Vol. 67, pp. 521-59, 2008

Posted: 7 Nov 2008

See all articles by Luca Enriques

Luca Enriques

University of Oxford Faculty of Law; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Tobias H. Troeger

Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE; Goethe University Frankfurt - Faculty of Law; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 6, 2008

Abstract

The European Union has a tradition of national securities laws significantly differing from each other. Regulatory idiosyncrasies largely remain today despite recent efforts aiming at more comprehensive harmonisation. In addition, in important respects, the current conflict of laws rules contained in European Community securities laws bundle the choice of applicable securities laws with the issuer's registered office, while leaving some regulatory aspects to the law of the market where the issuer's securities are admitted to trading. Hence, to the extent that EU companies can choose their state of incorporation and trading location, they can also choose the applicable securities law among those in place in the 27 EU countries.

This article scrutinises the policy implications of the conflict of laws rules EC securities regulation has chosen in two scenarios: the present one, in which obstacles to companies mobility across the EU still make regulatory arbitrage in practice unavailable, and a prospective one in which these obstacles are removed.

We consider the bundling of securities laws with the issuer's law of incorporation for conflict of laws purposes overall detrimental if corporate law arbitrage is unavailable. On the other hand, we argue that the impact of such rules is overall beneficial if companies can easily engage in company law arbitrage.

Keywords: securities laws, securities regulation, harmonization, conflict of laws, corporate law, corporate governance, regulatory competition, legal arbitrage, issuer choice, Financial Services Action Plan

JEL Classification: G18, G34, G38, K22

Suggested Citation

Enriques, Luca and Tröger, Tobias Hans, Issuer Choice in Europe (November 6, 2008). Cambridge Law Journal, Vol. 67, pp. 521-59, 2008, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1296503

Luca Enriques (Contact Author)

University of Oxford Faculty of Law ( email )

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Tobias Hans Tröger

Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE ( email )

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Goethe University Frankfurt - Faculty of Law ( email )

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Frankfurt, 60323
Germany
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+49 69 798 34536 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.jura.uni-frankfurt.de/43940696/English-Version

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
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1000 Brussels
Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://www.ecgi.global/users/tobias-tr%C3%B6ger

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