John Armour (University of Oxford – Faculty of Law; University of Oxford – Said Business School; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)), Holger Fleischer (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law), Vanessa Jane Knapp (Queen Mary University of London), & Martin Winner (Vienna University of Economics and Business – Department of Business Law) have posted Brexit and Corporate Citizenship (European Business Organization Law Review, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 225-249, June 2017) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The UK’s recent vote for Brexit has sparked a fierce debate over the implications for the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living in the rest of the EU. So far, however, there has been relatively little discussion of the implications of Brexit for legal persons – that is, corporate citizens of the EU, which may also be profoundly affected by consequent changes. The ECJ’s 1999 decision in Centros made clear that the freedom of establishment protects the entitlement of corporate persons formed in one EU Member State to carry on their business in another Member State. Since then, many entrepreneurs in continental European countries have chosen to form companies in the UK, while still carrying on their business in their home country. What will the consequences of Brexit be for such companies?