Article: The Age-Old Distinction Between Public and Private Limited Liability Companies: Should It Stay or Should It Go?: A figment of academics’ imaginations

Abstract

This article attempts to answer the question whether the distinction between public and private companies is still needed or whether it is outdated. The question will be answered from an EU perspective, while taking the Dutch legal system as a leading example. In the Netherlands, there was a huge time-gap between the introduction of the public company in 1811 and the introduction of the private company in 1971, 160 years later. This seems to justify the question whether we needed the private company at all. Public company, private company, minimum capital requirement, capital maintenance rules, bearer shares, registered shares