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	text:  larger  smaller		Wolf-Georg Ringe DAAD Lecturer in Law, Fellow at Christ Church and Deputy Director, Institute of European and Comparative Law  Wolf-Georg Ringe , Dr iur (Bonn), MJur (Oxon), is DAAD Lecturer in Law at the Institute of European and Comparative Law and Fellow at Christ Church. He is an associate member of the Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance. He came to Oxford in 2007 after having worked at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, Germany, having received his legal education in Passau, Lausanne, Bonn, Oxford (Christ Church, MJur 2004) and Hamburg where he qualified as a German barrister ('Rechtsanwalt'). Georg teaches Comparative and European Corporate Law, European Business Regulation, Company Law, European Union Law and German Law. His current research interests are in the general area of Law and Finance, Company Law, Conflict of Laws and European Law. E-mail: georg.ringe [at] law.ox.ac.uk Tel: +44-1865-271476 Fax: +44-1865-281611 Subject groups : European Business Regulation : Comparative and European Corporate Law : Law and Finance : Company Law All | Recent | Selected Publications    sorted by selection | sort by year WG Ringe, L Gullifer and P Théry (eds), Current Issues in European Financial and Insolvency Law - Perspectives from France and the UK (Hart Publishing, Oxford and Portland, Oregon 2009) URL: http://www.hartpub.co.uk/books/details.asp?isbn=978184113935 Abstract: Recent case-law and legislation in European company and insolvency law have significantly furthered the integration of European business regulation. In particular, the case-law of the European Court of Justice and the introduction of the EU Insolvency Regulation have provided the stimulus for current reforms in various jurisdictions in the fields of insolvency and financial law. The UK, for instance, has adopted the Enterprise Act in 2002, designed, inter alia, to enhance enterprise and to strengthen the UK’s approach to bankruptcy and corporate rescue. In a similar vein, a recent reform in France has modernised French insolvency law and even introduced a tool similar to the successful English ‘company voluntary arrangement’ (CVA). This book provides a collection of studies by some of the leading English and French experts today, analysing current perspectives of insolvency and financial law in Europe, both on the national as well as on the European level. ISBN: 978-1841139357 WG Ringe, Sparking Regulatory Competition in European Company Law - The Impact of the Centros Line of Case-Law and its Concept of \'Abuse of Law\' in R de la Feria and S Vogenauer (eds), Prohibtion of Abuse of Law - A New General Principle of EU Law (Hart Publishing, forthcoming 2009) URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1326964 WG Ringe, 'Forum Shopping under the EU Insolvency Regulation' (2008) 9 European Business Organization Law Review 579 DOI: 10.1017/S156675290800579X URL: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1209822 Abstract: Cross-border forum shopping for the benefit of a different insolvency law regime has become popular within the European Union in recent years. Yet legislators, courts and legal scholarship react with suspicion when debtors cross the border only to profit from a different insolvency law system. The most prominent legal tool, the European Insolvency Regulation, is based on the assumption that forum shopping is bad for the functioning of the European Internal Market. This paper questions the hostile attitude towards the phenomenon of forum shopping. It is argued that forum shopping can have beneficial effects both for the company and for its creditors, and that strong safeguards for creditors who oppose the migration are in place. Furthermore, the validity of the COMI approach of the Regulation under the fundamental freedoms of the Treaty is questioned; it is suggested that the current regime needs to be amended. The proposed new system would enable more corporate mobility within the European Union and create more legal certainty for all constituencies at the same time. WG Ringe, Die Sitzverlegung der Europäischen Aktiengesellschaft (Mohr Siebeck 2006) URL: http://www.mohr.de/en/law/series/detail/buch/die-sitzverlegung-der-europaeischen-aktiengesellschaft.html Abstract: With the introduction of the new legal form of the European Company Statute ('Societas Europaea') at the end of 2004, European Community lawmakers have created an instrument which enables large European firms to choose a corporate structure which is based on the same standards in all of the European Community. One special advantage of this new legal form is the simplification of cross-border restructuring, in particular the transfer of the corporation's registered office to another country. However, the statutory provisions for this transfer are relatively restrictive and do take the creditors' and shareholders' request for protection into consideration. The book studies the extent to which these newly-created regulations for the transfer of a European Company’s seat comply with the requirements of an authentic legal form of European Community law, and in particular whether or not they are compatible with the basic freedoms stipulated in the EC Treaty. ISBN: 978-3-16-149102-3 WG Ringe, 'Company Law and Free Movement of Capital: Nothing Escapes the ECJ?' (2008) Oxford Legal Research Paper no 42/2008 URL: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1295905 Abstract: Company law has long been in conflict with European Union law. Whereas the traditional approach of the European Court of Justice was to challenge national company law rules that were applied to foreign companies under the freedom of establishment (Centros and its progeny), recent case-law suggests that the Court might embark on a general assessment of domestic company law rules. This tendency is based on an extended interpretation of the free movement of capital, which became most prominently relevant in the recent Volkswagen case. A systematic analysis of the latter fundamental freedom and its relationship to company law demonstrates that this tendency is not without risk and might well end up in a ‘quality control’ of national company law through the ECJ. However, differentiated outcomes will be found depending on the actor in question (private party or State), and depending on the beneficiary of the measure at stake. It is argued that State measures potentially will always trigger the scope of application of the free movement of capital, irrespective of their nature or objective. Hence, even general statutory company law can be caught by this fundamental freedom. However, the decisive test will be identified as whether the measure has a ‘deterring effect’ on potential investors from other Member States. Special rights for the State are one extreme example which are surely caught by EC law, and purely private arrangements within the articles of association, are the other extreme. This test is recommended to serve the Court as guidance in future cases. WG Ringe, 'The European Company Statute in the context of Freedom of Establishment' (2007) 7 Journal of Corporate Law Studies 185-212 URL: http://ssrn.com/abstract=998315 Abstract: One of the key features of the new Europe-wide legal form "European Company" ("Societas Europaea" or "SE") is the possibility of transferring the company’s seat from one Member State to another without having to be wound up or to re-register. As this possibility does not exist for companies formed under national law, the formation of an SE will often present the only possibility for companies to transfer their incorporation and corporate headquarters between Member States. This is a big advantage and a milestone towards the European Internal Market. However, some doubts remain as to the practicability of the system. The mandatory linkage of the head office to the registered office within the same Member State according to Article 7 of the SE Regulation is very problematic and, in light of recent ECJ decisions such as Centros, Überseering and Inspire Art, may violate EC primary legislation. Why should companies that are formed under national law be allowed to have the head office in a Member State different from their registration state, while an SE—as an instrument of Community law and a symbol of the Internal Market—is not? Furthermore, the detailed procedural rules laid down in the Regulation are sometimes overprotective and may significantly reduce the attractiveness of the SE’s mobility. It is argued that Article 7 of the SE Regulation is secondary law that itself is inconsistent with the (primary) EC Treaty. Furthermore, the Member States also tend to be overprotective when enacting safeguard measures for the benefit of creditors, minority shareholders and employees. Here again, freedom of establishment does not allow protectionist measures that contravene the gist of the SE’s mobility. ISBN: 1473-5970 WG Ringe, 'Überseering im Verfahrensrecht' - Zu den Auswirkungen der EuGH-Rechtsprechung zur Niederlassungsfreiheit von Gesellschaften auf das Internationale Zivilprozessrecht' (2007) IPRax 388-395 URL: http://www.iprax.de/heft2007_5.htm Abstract: article on the Überseering case and international jurisdiction issues ISBN: 072-06585 WG Ringe and D Zimmer, Kommentierung der Art. 7, 8 SE-VO in M Lutter and P Hommelhoff (eds), SE-Kommentar (SE-VO, SEAG, SEBG, Steuerrecht) (Otto Schmidt Verlag, Cologne 2008) URL: http://shop.otto-schmidt.de/epages/ovs.storefront/DE/Product/978-3-504-31175-9 Abstract: Annotated guide on the European Company Statute Correspondence address: Institute of European and Comparative Law, St Cross Building, St Cross Road, Oxford OX1 3UL Link to personal web site Link to Institute of European and Comparative Law Link to Christ Church Link to University email/phone directory in new window