Freedom of Establishment of Companies in European Law

States have traditionally dealt with foreign companies on their territory within their private international law. The arrival of European law and enactment of freedom of establishment though considerably constrained capabilities of member states, whereas companies gained the right of establishment. The aim of this thesis is characterization and specification of the relationship between the freedom of establishment, member states and companies incorporated under laws of member states. The main focus of this thesis is analysis of ten most important cases by the Court of Justice of the European Union concerning the freedom of establishment of companies, which significantly transformed mentioned relationship. Subsequently the thesis summarizes the conclusions of analyzed cases by subject of evolution of primary and secondary freedom of establishment, standing of pseudoforeign companies, conformity with incorporation theory and real seat theory and lastly ways of statutory and/or real seat transfer. The main contribution of the thesis is the very detailed case law analysis, including the newest case Vale from July 12th 2012, and also the case law classification by object