This text provides discussion of the principle of freedom of establishment and focuses on the key issue of determining where a corporation has its 'seat' for legal purposes.

Currently nobody doubts a significant role of corporations, being not only a primary legal and social, but also economic form of involvement of the multitude as one party in civil and business turnover traditionally presenting high risks. And it is true that, the European Union has long fixed its eyes on perspectives of its economic and political rise, which also may be stimulated by support of the cross-border activity of corporations suited to the dimensions of the Single Market. As may be read between the lines of numerous legal acts of the European Union, the dynamic and ever-increasing Single Market requires rational legal forms, models and institutions to be introduced by the relevant legal instruments.

This concise book is mainly intended to be used as an introduction to the rules of private international law belonging to the legal system of the European Union. It provides legal practitioners with an overview of this highly complex field of law and can serve as an introductory textbook in elective undergraduate courses and master programs offered today by many law schools both to their own students and to exchange students from other countries. The book will hopefully also be useful as a spring-board towards more profound studies of statutory texts, case law and legal literature. Michael Bogdan is Professor of Comparative and Private International Law at the University of Lund, Sweden.

Within Europe the private international law rules have been harmonized to a very large extent by legislation adopted at EU level and case-law on the interpretation of this legislation. Recent developments include the entry into operation of revised versions of the Brussels I Regulation on civil jurisdiction and judgments and the Regulation on insolvency proceedings, as well as numerous decisions of the European Court and the English courts. The new edition of this authoritative work takes account of recent developments at both EU and UK levels.

This book focuses on harmonization of conflict laws at the European Community level, which has been driven by the introduction of a series of conventions and regulations. It offers critical assessment of these advances across four main areas of concern: civil jurisdiction and judgments; the law applicable to civil obligations; family law; and insolvency.

The idea of national codification is advancing on a global scale in conflict of laws. A large number of legislative projects dealing with codifying and modernizing private international law, both on the national and the supranational level, have been launched in the past few years. Among such recent initiatives, the advances taken by the European and the Japanese legislators are particularly reflecting these developments. On January 1, 2007, the new Japanese 'Act on General Rules for Application of Laws' entered into force replacing the outdated conflict of laws statute of 1898. This major reform finds its parallels in the current efforts of the European Union to create a modern private international law regime for its member states.This volume presents the first comprehensive analysis of the new Japanese private international law available in any western language and contrasts it with corresponding European developments. Most of the contributors from Japan are scholars who were actively involved in and responsible for preparing the new Act. All of them are renowned experts in the field of private international law. Leading European experts in the conflict of laws supplement the Japanese analyses with comparative contributions reflecting the pertinent discussion of parallel endeavours in the EU. To guarantee better understanding, English translations of both the present and the former Japanese statutes have been added.