Concluding Remarks

We are at the end of a premiere, and I daresay we should be proud. There are several reasons for this. First, of course, this is the first time that our new law review has gone public, apart from publication. It has done so in a fully international way. Our ECFR European Company and Financial Law Review is the first and only joint venture of the leading company law reviews in Europe, and I am not aware of a similar European enterprise in the whole area of private law. Of course, there are many European law journals that deal with European law or, more specifically, with European company or financial law and have foreign co-editors and contributors. But what the Revue des Sociétés, the Rivista delle Società, and the ZGR have done is different and combines two assets. Each of our company law reviews has a very strong home base, not to mention the premier academic position in the field in our respective countries, and we have joined forces to be truly European. We have done so by way of a joint law review in English, and we are in promising negotiations with Belgium and Spain. The first two annual volumes of the ECFR have been well received by the European public, and the first edition of volume three appeared in March 2006. The review presents a platform for all those who deal with European company and financial law, academics as well as practitioners. In my view, this dialogue between practice and academia is very important; we have more of this in Europe than our American friends, and we should maintain this asset. We consider the ECFR as a means also of influencing the discussion, court practice, and legislation both at the level of the EU member states and at the European level. Joining forces in this endeavor is the only way in which, after some time, we in Europe can meet the Americans at eye level, i.e., presenting a European forum that the Americans simply cannot overlook if they are dealing with European company and financial law.