This casebook deals with the basic principles of the Italian business law and focuses on certain recent and pivotal cases in which important rules governing the modern public company have been applied. After a short overview of the main corporate and securities laws and regulation applicable to Italian listed companies, certain leading cases which triggered the application of such rules are analyzed. The main interrelationships between and among the economic and legal elements are scrutinized for the purpose of highlighting the economic logic underlying corporate law. In the financial markets’ dynamics, the public company plays a vital role since it attracts the public savings coming from the investors in order to finance business plans and strategies which create growth and welfare. In such a scenario, financial intermediaries must act in the interest of the investors, selecting among the potential issuers those who are the most attractive for their clients. When companies are structurally organized to attract standardized equity or debt investments, by issuing listed shares, bonds or other financial instruments, their operational and governance rules change in order to safeguard the public savings coming from the investors. In the end, what makes this branch of law so interesting to students, practitioners, and scholars alike is the open-textured relationship between corporate law and securities regulation which plays a crucial role in such context. The cases selected in the second part of this book deal with significant topics in the Italian market practice and are briefly commented making reference to an updated set of laws and references. Therefore, this book can be used also with a focus on comparative legal systems for corporations taught in Italy or abroad.

The book provides rule-by-rule commentaries on European contract law (general contract law, consumer contract law, the law of sale and related services), dealing with its modern manifestations as well as its historical and comparative foundations. After the collapse of the European Commission's plans to codify European contract law it is timely to reflect on what has been achieved over the past three to four decades, and for an assessment of the current situation. In particular, the production of a bewildering number of reference texts has contributed to a complex picture of European contract laws rather than a European contract law. The present book adopts a broad perspective and an integrative approach. All relevant reference texts (from the CISG to the Draft Common European Sales Law) are critically examined and compared with each other. As far as the acquis commun (ie the traditional private law as laid down in the national codifications) is concerned, the Principles of European Contract Law have been chosen as a point of departure. The rules contained in that document have, however, been complemented with some chapters, sections, and individual provisions drawn from other sources, primarily in order to account for the quickly growing acquis communautaire in the field of consumer contract law. In addition, the book ties the discussion concerning the reference texts back to the pertinent historical and comparative background; and it thus investigates whether, and to what extent, these texts can be taken to be genuinely European in nature, ie to constitute a manifestation of a common core of European contract law. Where this is not the case, the question is asked whether, and for what reasons, they should be seen as points of departure for the further development of European contract law.

This is the long-awaited third edition of this highly regarded comparative overview of corporate law. This edition has been comprehensively revised and updated to reflect the profound changes in corporate law and governance practices that have taken place since the previous edition. These include numerous regulatory changes following the financial crisis of 2007-09 and the changing landscape of governance, especially in the US, with the ever more central role of institutional investors as (active) owners of corporations. The geographic scope of the coverage has been broadened to include an important emerging economy, Brazil. In addition, the book now incorporates analysis of the burgeoning use of corporate law to protect the interests of "external constituencies" without any contractual relationship to a company, in an attempt to tackle broader social and economic problems. The authors start from the premise that corporations (or companies) in all jurisdictions share the same key legal attributes: legal personality, limited liability, delegated management, transferable shares, and investor ownership. Businesses using the corporate form give rise to three basic types of agency problems: those between managers and shareholders as a class; controlling shareholders and minority shareholders; and shareholders as a class and other corporate constituencies, such as corporate creditors and employees. After identifying the common set of legal strategies used to address these agency problems and discussing their interaction with enforcement institutions, The Anatomy of Corporate Law illustrates how a number of core jurisdictions around the world deploy such strategies. In so doing, the book highlights the many commonalities across jurisdictions and reflects on the reasons why they may differ on specific issues. The analysis covers the basic governance structure of the corporation, including the powers of the board of directors and the shareholder meeting, both when management and when a dominant shareholder is in control. It then analyses the role of corporate law in shaping labor relationships, protection of external stakeholders, relationships with creditors, related-party transactions, fundamental corporate actions such as mergers and charter amendments, takeovers, and the regulation of capital markets. The Anatomy of Corporate Law has established itself as the leading book in the field of comparative corporate law. Across the world, students and scholars at various stages in their careers, from undergraduate law students to well-established authorities in the field, routinely consult this book as a starting point for their inquiries.

The Meaning of "Enterprise", "Business" and "Business Profits" under Tax Treaties and EU Tax Law, comprising the proceedings and working documents of an annual seminar held in Milan in November 2010, provides an in-depth analysis of the meaning of these three essential concepts in relevant tax treaties and law. The analysis starts from an EU tax law perspective, with a particular emphasis on the European Directives. The above concepts are then considered from domestic tax law viewpoints. The book then moves to tax treaty law. Most notably, an examination of the history and interpretation of the concepts of "enterprise", "business" and "business profits" is presented, starting from the works of the League of Nations to the current OECD Model Tax Convention. Next, specific tax treaty issues are considered. In particular, the controversial issues concerning the interpretation of the notions of "enterprise" and "enterprise of a Contracting State" are discussed. Also, the concepts of "profits" and "business profits" are thoroughly reviewed. The concept of "enterprise" in the context of the non-discrimination clause laid down by Art. 24 of the OECD Model Tax Convention is then examined. Individual country surveys provide an in-depth analysis of the aforementioned concepts and issues from a national viewpoint in selected European and North American jurisdictions, as well as in Australia and Japan. The book concludes with a round-table discussion among some of the most renowned international tax scholars on the desirability to change the OECD Model Tax Convention and its Commentaries. This book is essential reading for all those dealing with issues of taxation of enterprises engaged in cross-border activities and can be considered a new cornerstone in the subject matter."--Publisher's website

Drawing on expertise from across the worlds of the judiciary, the bar, and legal academia, this book provides fascinating insights into the role of a key Member State and how its legal influence informs the wider Union's development. This collection sheds light on the Italian influence on European law by examining the judicial biographies of Italian judges and advocates general during almost five decades of the European Union. It explores the national ties of judges and advocates general to their Member States, to better understand the continuous relationship between the members of the EU judiciary and their Member States' governments and how they practise the principle of judicial independence, a central pillar of the ECJ's rule of law jurisprudence.

This monograph provides a comprehensive analysis of corporate opportunities doctrines from a comparative perspective. It looks at both common law and civil law rules and relies to a large extent on a law and economics approach. This book broadens the conventional view on corporate opportunities, a vital step in light of the adoption of corporate opportunities rules in civil law jurisdictions and in light of investors' ever-changing strategies. This approach considers institutional complementarities and especially industrial complementarities. The book thus explores several jurisdictions and their economic and industrial environments, whilst also assessing the impact of globalisation onto legal reform. Furthermore, it analyses the problems related to the application of corporate opportunities rules to cross-border venture capital. In normative terms, the book advances one main stance, articulated in three points: first, it proposes different sanctions for undisclosed and disclosed misappropriations, supporting the core idea that sanctions should be set against disclosure and not authorisation. Secondly, it advances the idea that sanctions against undisclosed misappropriations should be more severe than the ones presently applied. Thirdly, it considers the possibility of a more flexible treatment of disclosed misappropriations. This study is positioned at the intersection of several fields, providing a lens into a much broader range of dynamics that will be of interest to a varied international readership, and offering a window into the broader institutional dynamics at work in centres of innovation (eg Silicon Valley and industrial districts in other jurisdictions). It is rooted in law and economics, but the emphasis is placed on how corporate opportunities rules fit within a broader set of institutional dynamics that affect innovation, industrial efficiency, and economic competitiveness.

A detailed and comprehensive study of the issues faced by judiciaries when dealing with tax treaty law cases. It begins with an overview of some of the questions that domestic courts have to deal with when facing treaty cases. It then provides a comparative look into the structure of tax judiciaries and the issues raised by the burden of proof in cases dealing with the application of tax treaties. The different approaches of judiciaries of common law and civil law countries are also taken into consideration. A particular focus is devoted to the interaction between European law principles and bilateral tax treaties, both from the point of view of national judges and the Court of Justice of the European Communities, as well as the relevance of foreign court decision in interpreting tax treaties and the twofold influence between decisions issued by national courts and the Commentaries to the OECD Model Tax Convention. Individual country surveys provide an in-depth analysis on how national courts face cases dealing with the application of tax treaties, with a particular emphasis on issues raised by tax treaty interpretation. Lastly, the book deals with issues raised by judicial treaty override, proposes solutions to resolve judicial errors in the context of international tax law and analyses the procedural conditions for the implementation of tax treaty obligations under domestic law.

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