Freedom of Establishment for Companies in Europe (EU/EEA)

This cahier provides an overview of the freedom of establishment, one of the four freedoms central to the European Union’s single market. The book first contextualizes corporate mobility within a broader economic discussion on market access before turning to the private international law dilemmas posed by legal entities moving across borders. Next, the foundational work done to include the freedom of establishment in EU legislation is explained. The book then presents the limitations that can be imposed on this freedom and the growing body of CJEU case law that has interpreted the scope of these limitations, thereby providing the contours of the freedom of establishment itself. The book subsequently delves into the mechanisms provided under EU secondary legislation to enable legal entities to exercise their freedom of establishment, focusing particularly on cross-border mergers and the Societas Europaea. The last chapters of the book are devoted to cross-border divisions and ongoing developments in European company law that are material to freedom of establishment, most notably the 2018 proposal for a legislative framework for cross-border divisions and cross-border conversions. While primarily targeted at students, we hope that this book will also be of interest to anyone who seeks to have a deeper understanding of the freedom of establishment of companies, the motivations for exercising this freedom and the mechanisms that can be used to do so.