The EC Treaty guarantees in Articles 43 and 48 the freedom of establishment for natural
persons and for companies. This freedom includes the right to choose the company's seat in
any member state. However, in recent years, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) seems to
have interpreted those Articles as being relevant only to the recognition of foreign
companies, whereas the right to leave the company's country of incorporation has not come
within the scope of this freedom.'The purpose of this paper is to question this distinction …