Opiniestuk Frederik De Leo in Trends
Frederik De Leo (doctoraatsbursaal, Instituut voor Handels- en Insolventierecht, KU Leuven en vaste auteur bij Corporate Finance Lab), schreef vandaag in Trends een opiniestuk over De stille dood van het stil faillissement. Continue reading “Rumoer rond het stil faillissement”
Does ‘Cartesio’ meet the ‘real seat’?
In a previous post (in Dutch) Gillis Lindemans discussed the opinion of AG Kokott in the Polbud-case arguing that this opinion, if followed by the Court, would add a pinch of “real seat” to theEU case-law on corporate mobility. More interesting thoughts on Polbud are to be found on the blog of Professor Geert Van Calster. Money quote:
“Ms Kokott suggests the Opinion is a simple confirmation of the CJEU’s case-law on the issue: no change of tack. Simply confirmation ex multi. That now does leave me puzzled: the Opinion walks and talks like confirming old precedent; but it does not, surely?”
Een voorstel van amendement door gastblogger Julie Cuppens
Het wetsontwerp (zie voor eerdere posts hier) tot hervorming van het insolventierecht stelt het faillissement en de gerechtelijke reorganisatie open voor de maatschap (art. XX. 1. §1, eerste lid c) WER). De memorie van toelichting bij het wetsontwerp verwijst voor de verantwoording daarvan onder meer naar een van de eerste posts op deze blog (Kamer 2016-17, nr. 2407/001, p 25).
Het wetsontwerp voorziet met het voorgestelde nieuwe artikel XX. 103. lid 2 en 3 uitdrukkelijk dat de maat wordt betrokken in de faillissementsprocedure tegen de maatschap: Continue reading “De insolventie van maatschap, VOF en Comm.V: weldra een geconsolideerde procedure voor vennootschap en vennoten?”
Een post door gastblogger Aline Van Bever over haar met de Raymond Derine Prijs bekroonde proefschrift
Naarmate de wereld en de wijze waarop die zich ontwikkelt steeds complexer wordt, is het voor een creatief jurist belangrijk om open te staan voor kruisbestuiving uit andere rechtstakken en dialoog met andere disciplines . De samenleving laat zich immers niet haarfijn indelen in juridische vakjes, zoals ex ante vastgelegde wetten, wederzijds onderhandelde dan wel eenzijdig opgelegde afspraken en regels, of (bij voorkeur schriftelijke) overeenkomsten. Al zeker niet in “de wereld van het werk”. En dat heeft zo ook zijn weerslag heeft op het “traditionele” Belgische arbeidsrecht. Verrassend daarbij is dat die benadering van het arbeidsrecht daarbij gebruik maakt van concepten die ook resoneren in het vennootschapsrecht, zoals onvolledige overeenkomsten en dynamische duurcontracten. Continue reading “Open normen en het arbeidsrecht”
A post by guest blogger Vincent Chantillon
Academics tend to say that you can’t have your cake and eat it too, yet this is what Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy did with Snap a few months ago. Continue reading “Not all shareholders are created equal – Snap goes public with non-voting stock”
A post by guest blogger Branda Katan
In civil law many rules rely for their legal effect on the presence of certain knowledge or a certain intention with one of the parties. If the party at hand is a legal entity, like a limited company, it can be difficult to determine what the entity knew. Fragments of information can be present in different parts of the organisation; an officer of the company may have gained his knowledge through his private life; he may also have a duty of confidentiality. In my doctoral thesis ‘Toerekening van kennis aan rechtspersonen’ (‘Attribution of knowledge to legal entities’), I have investigated when information that at any time is or has been available within a private legal entity qualifies as knowledge of the legal entity under Dutch law, making an in-depth comparison with German law. The thesis contains a summary in English.
A post by guest blogger Jasper Van Eetvelde
The prediction of bankruptcy, i.e. the assessment of the likelihood that a company might go bankrupt, is an important topic, with practical and legislative consequences (for an introduction to bankruptcy prediction, read here; for a recent attempt to create a global model for bankruptcy prediction, read here). With a preventive mindset, the legislator tries to estimate this likelihood, in order to regulate accordingly. Evidently, also creditors and other interested parties try to assess whether a company they interact with is likely to enter bankruptcy proceedings. Continue reading “It’s the people, stupid! Individual characteristics influencing bankruptcy”
The TRV-RPS Prize 2016 for the best master thesis in company, financial or tax law written at a Belgian university is awarded to Tom Vos. His master thesis studied “freeze-outs of minority shareholders” using a comparative law and economics approach. The thesis is available here. A revised version will also be published in TRV-RPS.
This prize has been awarded by the Revue pratique des sociétés (RPS) since 2009. Since the merger of RPS with the Tijschrift voor Rechtspersoon en Vennootschap (TRV) in 2016, the prize is awarded by the combined journal TRV-RPS, the leading journal for company law in Belgium.
The master thesis started from the problem that minority shareholders of a listed company often constitute a nuisance to a controlling shareholder. It then considered to what extent the controlling shareholder can eliminate the minority shareholders through a freeze-out, and what protection these minority shareholders should receive. Continue reading “RPS-TRV Prize 2016 awarded to Tom Vos: freeze-out of minority shareholders”
A post by guest blogger Vincent Chantillon
The United States has a problem of litigation. If a large M&A deal is announced, it is almost certain that a stockholder will challenge the deal in court. In 2014, 93% of all M&A deals valued over $100 million were challenged in court. This marked the fifth consecutive year in which more than 90% of all M&A deals valued over $100 million were challenged. This large amount of litigation has burdened the corporate world, and the Delaware Courts have started to take action to stop it. Continue reading “Delaware halts the eruption of M&A litigation in the Volcano case”
De TFR-prijs 2017 werd toegekend aan Christophe De Backere voor zijn bijdrage “Pleidooi voor een zuivere toepassing van artikel 49 WIB 1992 in de vennootschapsbelasting” (TFR 2016, afl. 500, 368-388). De TFR-prijs werd in 1982 in het leven geroepen om het beste artikel uit een jaargang van het Tijdschrift voor Fiscaal Recht te bekronen, geschreven door een jonge auteur. De doctorandus treedt op die manier in de voetsporen van de Leuvense professoren Axel Haelterman en Niels Bammens.
Over het bekroonde artikel
De vraag naar de fiscale aftrekbaarheid van kosten die worden gemaakt door een vennootschap is een evergreen die geregeld leidt tot geschillen tussen een vennootschap en de belastingadministratie. Continue reading “TFR-prijs 2017 toegekend aan Christophe De Backere: fiscale aftrekbaarheid van kosten door een vennootschap”
A post by guest blogger Marc Van de Looverbosch
For decades now, supporters of the real seat theory have been arguing with supporters of the incorporation theory over which theory (or which variant of either theory) best corresponds to the needs of modern business for purposes of determining which national company laws are applicable to bodies corporate. Continue reading “Real seat theory vs incorporation theory: the Belgian case for reform”
Contract law is out of touch, scholars argue – but why? A post by guest blogger Joeri De Smet
Arguably, contracts are quintessential in the operation of the modern economy. Scholarly attention across many disciplines accordingly is abundant. In law as well, contracts are amply studied. Most of the work on contracts, however, remains doctrinal, discovering developments and trends within the current system of current law. In Belgium, this system has not fundamentally changed for the last two hundred years, but even on the European level, contract law seldom undergoes radical changes. Over the course of time, parties in a contract build up a common interest, a “going concern value”. In European contract law, there are insufficient safeguards to protect this value. Concerning the performance of obligations, parties are only required to do just that, not to cooperate, and there is no general system to adapt existing provisions to previously unknown circumstances. Concerning termination, there is no way for a party to leave the contractual framework without destroying it (through resolution or unilateral notice), along with its going concern value Some scholars are trying to move beyond this frame of reference and argue that current contract law is not adapted to real-life economic needs. They propose a new outlook on contract law, under the umbrella of organisational contracts. In this contribution, I briefly define and set out the key elements of what is understood as an organisational contract. Continue reading “Organisational contracts: rethinking the European paradigm”
Corporate Finance Lab 