Oxford Business Law Blog

This blog post reviews the implementation of the Cross-border Mergers Directive (the ‘CBMD’)[1] and contemplates on future perspectives. It is based on a chapter published recently in an edited book...

The ‘traditional’ IPO model has received a lot of criticism recently in the media and from venture capital investors for perceived ‘mispricings’ that result in a pop in the opening trade. Recently,...

The typical structure of corporations with multiple classes of stock consists of multiple classes of preferred stock and one or more types of common stock. These structures are most commonly used in...

Can the choice of place of incorporation constitute an abuse of the corporate form? The case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is telling for it spells out the Court’s...

In response to the sharp increase in campaigns by activist hedge funds in France and Europe generally, a French commission has conducted an extensive investigation and issued a carefully researched,...

Perhaps the most attractive aspect of the UK system is the ability of the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers (the Panel) to regulate the takeover landscape without interference from other public bodies...

Is there an impact of Brexit on corporate mobility in the form of companies incorporated in the United Kingdom making use of as cross-border mergers, conversions, divisions or seat transfers of SEs (...

M&A transactions involving entities processing personal data will be subjected to the new Brazilian General Data Protection Law (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados or ‘LGPD’) when this legislation...

Trade relationships have gained abundant political momentum and media coverage in the last decade. The enduring Brexit saga is a case in point. However, this blogpost intends to adopt a broader,...

The current debate on the competitive risks of common ownership has focused on whether index investments soften competition among portfolio companies. However, even if one concedes, in arguendo, that...

Is common ownership the Doomsday Machine for the operation of free markets, competition and capitalism as we know it? An observer of cutting-edge law and economics literature may indeed tend to...

In April 2018 the European Commission presented a proposed directive on cross-border mobility which includes a new legal process for cross-border conversion. The JURI committee of the European...

One of the issues which has bedevilled agreement at EU level on mechanisms which might allow a company to alter its applicable corporate law (without changing anything else) is the potential impact...

As of 2017, 172 of America’s 200 largest companies, ranked by revenue, were publicly traded. Public company dominance of the corporate economy of the United States has existed for decades. There has...

One of the fundamental issues in modern corporate finance is the problem of separation of firm ownership from control. The gap between management and shareholders is potentially wide, and the danger...

The advent of the ‘shareholder rights’ plan’, more popularly known as the ‘poison pill’, fundamentally altered the trajectory of American corporate governance. Intended to defend vulnerable boards...

A central issue in corporate governance literature is the extent to which ‘good’ governance practices are universal (one size mostly fits all) or instead depend on country and firm characteristics,...

With the UK’s planned exit from the European Union on March 29, 2019 looming and the likelihood of an exit without a withdrawal agreement (a so-called 'No Deal' Brexit) increasingly probable, merging...

In the United States, a significant majority of business entities incorporate in Delaware. That state’s law, therefore, applies in a great deal of litigation attacking actions taken by corporate...