Research Strands

Globalization, digitalization, and sustainability affect all crucial phases of a business, from its creation to its termination. In this new context, it is necessary to understand and rethink the fundamental principles of the legal system that govern the legal life of businesses.

This line of research includes the study of the establishment, working, organization, mobility, and expansion of businesses in time and space, and their discontinuity.

• Establishment research focuses on incorporation and the rules (e.g., tax incentives) that promote the creation and start-up of businesses: rules that determine when “the firm” is created, rules designed to increase businesses in the marketplace, and rules designed to protect certain types of businesses. Globalization, digitalization, and sustainability affect how businesses are established as well as what type of business is created. The research includes an investigation into how the legal framework interacts with this context.
• Working and organization research focuses on corporate governance, corporate short-termism, and financial reporting. Mobility and expansion are the focus of research on (the conditions for) market entry, market behavior, exit arrangements, transfers, acquisitions, and (cross-border) partnerships. As a result of globalization, digitalization, and sustainability, the internal organization as well as the role of business in society is changing, which requires research to better understand this new role and to rethink how the legal framework can stimulate and steer good governance in this new economic reality.
• Our (dis)continuity studies address rules that accelerate or mitigate the dissolution of businesses in the face of imminent insolvency (e.g. bankruptcy, (in)formal reorganization, rescue and restructuring aid), and consequences thereafter.

The key question is: How can the legal system regulate and facilitate good governance throughout the entire legal life of businesses in light of the opportunities and challenges of (de)globalization, digitalization, and sustainability?

Globalization, digitalization, and sustainability have an impact on the legal relationship between businesses and their stakeholders. In this new context, it is necessary to understand and rethink the fundamental principles that govern this legal relationship.

This field of research encompasses the legal relationships between businesses and their stakeholders, including investors and creditors, competitors, customers and suppliers, employees and freelancers, and end consumers.

• First, balanced investor and creditor relations are paramount for a thriving business. Within this framework the different types of investors and creditors, security interests and sustainable debt collection are analyzed, including how these are impacted by globalization, digitalization, and sustainability.
• The interaction between competitors on the market and the legal rules that affect this interaction, are also a subject of study. Rules on competition and fair market conduct (including intellectual property protection), in particular, affect how businesses can engage in the marketplace. As a result of globalization, digitalization, and sustainability, markets shift and transform, thereby changing who competes with whom. Another topic concerns the relationship between a business and its customers and suppliers. In this context, the rules governing distribution agreements are particularly important. Here as well, globalization, digitalization, and sustainability affect credit and supply chains, and the types and content of agreements that are concluded by business.
• The analysis of the role of businesses as employers focuses on the tension between social and economic approaches to labor law. Because of globalization, digitalization, and sustainability concerns, the relationship between businesses and workers changes, including the very qualification of a worker as employee or independent service provider, but also how authority is exercised by employers and how this affects the employee’s tax status and the employee’s privacy and leisure time. Also end consumers, i.e. natural persons acting for non-professional purposes, are important stakeholders of businesses. Their relationship to businesses is researched in the context of the distribution models already mentioned above, but also beyond. Globalization, digitalization, and sustainability concerns affect what, how and from which businesses consumers procure products and services, and therefore change their legal relationships.

The research covers both the relationship between businesses and these stakeholders, as well as, where relevant (and within a business context), the relationship between the stakeholders themselves, for example, peer-to-peer relationships in the collaborative economy. More generally, the research group aims to study all interests surrounding business activity, even when these interests are disperse, as in questions of corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainable supply chains and logistics, and ethics of taxation. Also the enforceability of the different legal rights and obligations that arise between business and its stakeholders in this broader sense (e.g., transparency) and (alternative) dispute resolution are covered.

The key question is: How can the legal system regulate and facilitate good relationships between business and its stakeholders in light of the opportunities and challenges of (de-)globalization, digitalization, and sustainability?

By creating new policies, the government participates in economic life in several ways: it organizes and directs it through regulation, it provides and produces goods and services itself, and it provides subsidies to businesses. The government also subjects businesses to taxes in order to fund its own activities, and uses taxation to stimulate or discourage certain business behavior. The effects of globalization, digitalization, and sustainability on businesses have implications for how the government can perform these functions. At the same time, governments themselves are affected by globalization, digitalization, and sustainability and this changes their relationship with businesses. In this new context, understanding and rethinking the fundamental principles that govern the legal relationship between business and government are necessary.

• The government regulates economic and financial life (e.g., regulating financial activity) for various purposes (e.g., innovation, financial stability, and market fairness). It is also a market participant itself. As a result of globalization, digitalization, and sustainability concerns the market shifts and legal relationships amongst market participants change. It is fundamental to rethink such regulation and the role of the government as a market participant in this new economic reality.
• The government subjects businesses to taxation to fund its own activities, and uses taxation and subsidies to steer business behavior. Globalization, digitalization, and sustainability concerns have raised questions on how the government can perform this function and on what a fair tax system looks like. This research includes taxation of new technologies, taxation of the global and digital economy, and sustainable taxation.
• Globalization, digitalization, and sustainability concerns also raise new questions on judicial protection and fundamental rights of business. This topic is addressed in research on legal protection, good (tax) governance, and tax compliance. Special attention is devoted to the impact of digitalization on taxation and the tax administration, including the use of new technologies by governments (e.g., big data collection and data mining, the use of predictive algorithms, and chatbots).

The key question is: How can the legal system regulate and facilitate good relationships between business and government (including taxation and compliance) in light of opportunities and challenges of (de-)globalization, digitalization, and sustainability?

To conduct this research, the Research Group has 3 research units:

• Research Unit Company and Insolvency Law,
• Research Unit Economic and Labor Law, and
• Research Unit Tax Law.

We believe that a focus on business aspects across research units and legal domains offers great scientific added value. The research group strives to encourage, realize, and further develop intra-disciplinary legal research. Yet, when faced with complex, societal challenges (wicked problems), the legal approach needs to be complemented by insights from and dialogue with other disciplines. We strive to further develop interdisciplinary research in which a cross-disciplinary approach (e.g., computer sciences, economics, and psychology) to problem-solving can lead to a better understanding of challenges and the design of appropriate legal responses.