Unit 1: European Legal Framework and Development of EU Company Law - Functioning, origin and recent developments of the European Union; EU institutions; Sources and Supremacy of European law; Legislative competences and procedure; The EU's internal market; Integration through liberalization and secondary law; Integration and the role of competition law; Company law: integration until 1989, 1989 until 2002/03 - deadlock; The Commission's Company Law Action Plan (2003); Reflection process on the future of EU compamy law.