Recent events and trends have led to an increased awareness of the importance of Islamic law and a more widespread interest in the subject. However, many areas remain relatively inaccessible, including the law of business associations. The aim of this and a subsequent article is to alleviate this situation somewhat by providing a general introduction to Islamic perspectives on this area.

This article provides an overview of the classical sharia, looking at three Sunni schools by way of example, plus a brief comparison with Western-style law. The second article will consider the replacement of the sharia regimes in the Middle East and the interaction of the sharia with Western-style law in Muslim-majority jurisdictions and elsewhere.

When Council Regulation (EC) No 2157/2001 on the Statute for a European Company (Societas Europaea – SE) became effective on 8 October 2004, it offered existing publicly traded companies, for the first time, a choice between competing company laws, namely the national law of the company's home state and the law of the supranational SE. Using an event study methodology, we analyse a unique dataset of publicly traded firms that have announced to re-incorporate under the SE Regulation.

Corporate governance and the theory of the firm are discussed primarily from the shareholders' perspective. This point of view neglects the tremendous effects of private pensions and of co-determination as well as interdependencies between codetermination, pensions and corporate governance. Since in the private pension world the firm serves as an investment tool, the focus should be shifted from short-term interests to concepts maximising long-term shareholder value. In this context, also moderate forms of co-determination might serve as a tool for long-term oriented corporate governance. Given the rise of the European Company, co-determination is likely to spread in Europe. Both, private pension-based corporate governance systems and stakeholder-oriented corporate governance systems should be re-examined in the light of the financial and economic crisis and due to the rise of behavioural law and economics.

In EBOR 10(1) (2009, pp. 73–95), the Green Paper on a new Danish Companies Act was described in some detail. The Act has now been passed mostly as proposed in the Green Paper, except for some issues in respect of capital maintenance and the transfer of the registered seat of a company. Against this background, the main features of the new Act are explored and the minor differences from the original proposal are explained. It is concluded that although the new Act is now at the forefront of European company law and is especially well-suited to the needs of foreign enterprises and investors, reform is still necessary on a European level.

The paper deals with the issue of the compatibility of the Act on Special Powers of the Treasury and Their Exercise in Companies of Special Importance for Public Order or Public Security with the freedom of capital movements in the context of ECJ jurisprudence. The first part of the paper analyses the concept of the freedom of capital movements, as well as the concept of the golden share as a restriction on this freedom, on the basis of individual ECJ judgments. The next part covers legal solutions adopted in the Polish Act, namely its subjective scope, the rights of the Minister of Treasury in companies in which the State Treasury is entitled to a golden share, the nature of these rights, and the institution of Treasury observers. The final part of the paper examines the compatibility of the golden shares model adopted by the Polish legislator with ECJ jurisprudence. In particular, the authors seek to predict what the ECJ would hold if the European Commission were to bring an infringement case against Poland. This analysis deals with the following issues: the Polish Act as a restriction on the freedom of capital movements, the possible justifications of this restriction and the proportionality of the golden shares model adopted by Poland. As their final conclusion, the authors express the view that the Polish provisions governing the State Treasury's golden shares in principle conform with the ECJ's guidelines, although some features of the Polish golden share system can be questioned.

Corporation tax rates significantly influence the location of foreign direct investment (FDI) as well as company decisions on corporate borrowing, transfer pricing, dividend and royalty payments, and research and development. While direct taxation remains within the competence of individual EU Member States, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has faced an increasing number of corporation tax-related cases over recent years and its judgments have significantly redrawn the European tax landscape. The present paper reviews and synthesises these ECJ decisions and analyses their implications for the FDI decisions of multinational corporations.