Leyens, Patrick C. --- "Comment – Empirical Law and Economics: The Societas Europaea and its use within Europe" [2010] ELECD 399; in Pacces, M. Alessio (ed), "The Law and Economics of Corporate Governance" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: The Law and Economics of Corporate Governance

Editor(s): Pacces, M. Alessio

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848448971

Section Title: Comment – Empirical Law and Economics: The Societas Europaea and its use within Europe

Author(s): Leyens, Patrick C.

Number of pages: 5

Extract:

Comment ­ Empirical law and
economics: the Societas Europaea and
its use within Europe
Patrick C. Leyens

1. EMPIRICAL LAW AND ECONOMICS

Empirics and regressions have not always received much attention in the
process of European private law harmonisation. Today, legal research has
become more open to innovative methods, in line with the advance of the
law and economics movement.1 Perhaps the most commonly remarked
upon weakness of the economic analysis of the law is that its findings
are too far removed from corporate and commercial reality.2 In his
presentation,3 Horst Eidenmüller shows that and how empirical research
will help to satisfy our demand for information on the practical effects
European private law harmonisation has on corporate practice.
With a view to European company law, the merits of the empirical
method can be assessed from several different angles. To start from a
historic perspective, early attempts to fully harmonise company laws in
Europe failed.4 Perhaps that was not only due to the too flowery dreams
of the grandfathers of European company law. A better explanation seems


1 For a critical assessment, see Siems, `Numerical Comparative Law ­ Do We

Need Statistical Evidence in Order to Reduce Complexity?', 13 Cardozo J. Int'l &
Comp. L. 521 (2005). On the state of law and economics research see Schäfer and
Ott, The Economic Analysis of Civil Law, Cheltenham 2004, pp. 3, 11.
2 Most prominent: Ronald H. Coase in his Nobel Prize lecture, Stockholm, 9

December 1991; available at ...