Viviana Mollica

Peterhouse

European Company: An Analysis of the Concept Beyond the Latest EC Directives on Company Law

European company law is thought by many to be one of the areas of the law in Europe which is most intensively harmonised. Yet, instead of the unity for which the Union strove, diversity remains a fact, albeit unwanted, due to political restraints and the need for compromise. The truth is that a fully comprehensive, harmonised European Community company law is still far from reality. The introduction of the European Company was meant to smooth the integration process and to overcome some of the obstacles that prevented companies having a European passport or operating across the various borders. Alongside the establishment of a Societas Europaea, the urgent need to facilitate cross border mergers among legal entities located in the Member States of the European Union and find a way for European companies to be fully competitive on a European/global level has become a point of focus for European and national legislators.   It is safe to state that an increasing Europeisation (though not necessarily harmonisation) is taking place through the company law Directives, and the free movement of companies is also facilitated by the case law of the European Court of Justice on the right to free movement and establishment in the EC Treaty, but in reality, how far has European company law gone?  Considering the latest developments, it is interesting to evaluate the interrelations between ‘real’ and ‘new working’ models, assessing the dangers of hybrids, and eventually the interrelation between the EU law and the law of the Member States.  Using a functional comparative approach and having the Italian, German and English experience as the basis of the study, the thesis aims at a clearer picture on the eventual role that national laws still have in shaping EC law. Plus, consideration is given to whether the directives’ implementations follow, or depart from, recognisable features of the countries' respective 'systems' of corporate governance, and how (and if) their national companies and company group structures have responded and were affected by these new pieces of legislation. The question is whether Europeisation has had an effect upon their governance models. And this leads to focus upon the harmonisation issue, or rather the convergence path of European company law: the thesis is trying to answer several questions: do Member States’ legislators, the EU legislator and the companies that operate within the EU share the same policy, goals and idea on how EU company law should work and develop? What does it mean for a company to be truly European now, and to operate trans-borders?    

Start Date: 2015/01.

End Date: 2015/01.

January  2006

Admission to the Italian Bar (Consiglio dell’Ordine degli Avvocati di Roma) as a lawyer

2003-2004

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,  St. Hilda’s College, Oxford, England

• Magister Juris (MJur) in European and Comparative Law
• Subjects: Global Comparative Financial Law, Transnational Commercial Law, European Business Regulation and Intellectual Property Rights

 1996-2002

LUISS Guido Carli, University of Rome, Italy

• Diploma di Laurea in Giurisprudenza
• Dissertation: “Company Law for a Competitive Economy: The Reform of The UK Companies Act 1985”

 1998-1999

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA,  Norwich, England

• Erasmus programme

 1990-1996

Liceo Scientifico Statale ‘A. Avogadro’, Rome, Italy

• Diploma di Maturita’ Scientifica (Italian equivalent to A Levels)

• Company Law;
• EC Law;
• European Corporate Law.