The renowned authors of this ECFR special volume systematically develop legal standards and regulatory frameworks for closed corporations in Europe (including of course the Societas Privata Europaea), putting a strong focus on the economic practice and efficiency. The profound, in-depth analysis of the objectives and strategies comes to groundbreaking insights and also offers specific solutions for a multitude of practical aspects.

Close corporations, which are legal forms popular with small and medium enterprises, are crucial to every major economy's private sector. However, unlike their 'public' corporation counterparts, close corporation minority shareholders have limited exit options, and are structurally vulnerable in conflicts with majority or controlling shareholders. 'Withdrawal remedies'-legal mechanisms enabling aggrieved shareholders to exit companies with monetary claims-are potent minority shareholder protection mechanisms. This book critically examines the theory and operation of withdrawal remedies in four jurisdictions: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. Developing and applying a theoretical and comparative framework to the analysis of these jurisdictions' withdrawal remedies, this book proposes a model withdrawal remedy that is potentially applicable to any jurisdiction. With its international, functional, and comparative analysis of withdrawal remedies, it challenges preconceptions about shareholder remedies and offers a methodology for comparative corporate law in both scholarship and practice.

Comparative study of withdrawal remedies in four jurisdictions to offer solutions to shareholder conflicts in small and medium enterprises.

This book examines the limited liability business forms that have recently emerged, and seeks to identify the forces that have led to the emergence of new business forms for small and medium-sized businesses. Focusing on the US, UK, and continental Europe, the contributors analyse the Limited Liability Company, the Limited Liability Partnership, and the new business forms proposed in Europe.

This casebook covers the law of "closely held" businesses--those with few owners. Such businesses face special problems when compared, for example, to large, publicly held corporations. The book primarily covers four legal areas, through cases, statutes, and original informational notes and commentary: (1) agency law (covering questions of authority, fiduciary duties, and respondeat superior); (2) partnership law (the Revised Uniform Partnership Act and significant common-law developments); (3) the law of close corporations (basic corporate structure, common-law underpinnings and modern statutes, and protections of minority interests); and (4) the law of limited liability companies (LLCs). The book also introduces some problems in the law of small nonprofit organizations and of hybrid companies, such as the "low-profit" LLCs that have been authorized by recent statutes. The book is intended for use in modern versions of the "Agency and Partnership" course, courses on unincorporated or closely held businesses, and the first part of integrated "Business Organizations" sequences of courses. It adopts a functionalist approach to law and introduces students to economic reasoning in business law without relying exclusively on the methods or ideologies of legal economists.