This book provides an analysis and comparison of international insolvency rules, maritime laws and their inevitable intersection in maritime cross-border insolvencies. Until today, the on-going shipping crisis resulted in the insolvency of numerous shipping companies all over the world. The tensions arising between the legal systems of maritime and insolvency law, paired with conflicts of law in maritime insolvencies, are a major source of legal uncertainty and risk. In 2010, the Comite Maritime International installed an international working group on international maritime insolvencies and until today it is work in progress. This book gives an overview on maritime insolvencies, with a focus on Germany, England & Wales and the USA, and assesses the chances of achieving meaningful harmonization in the complex scenarios, where ships as mobile assets add a further complication to international insolvency proceedings.

Bankrupt Enron paid more than a billion dollars in cash to bankruptcy lawyers, financial advisors, and other bankruptcy professionals. The managers of Enron, like those of most bankrupt companies, paid the professionals with other peoples' money - money that would otherwise have gone to creditors, employees, shareholders, or to saving the companies. To prevent excessive payments, the bankruptcy code and rules establish an elaborate system for public reporting and court approval of professional fees.
Armed with the ability to choose among courts that want or need to attract the cases, the professionals have largely taken charge of the fee-control system and rendered it toothless. The professionals ignore ignore the rules and the courts do nothing about it. Objections to fees are rare, and the courts award almost 99% of the amounts applied for. Fees rose at the rate of 9.5% per year from 1998 through 2007. Effective methods for assessing and controlling fees do exist, but it is not in the interests of the courts or the professionals to employ them.
Based on a study of thousands of documents from the court files in 102 of the largest cases, bankruptcy expert, Lynn M. LoPucki, and political scientist, Joseph W. Doherty, provide an unprecedented window on the worlds of bankruptcy professionals, professional fees, and their scientific study. Through that window, readers see both a disturbing picture of a legal system in crisis and a hopeful one with opportunities for desperately needed reform.
Professional Fees in Corporate Bankruptcies is a scholarly work that employs statistical analysis, and documents its findings to scientific standards. But the authors have written for readers with technical backgrounds in neither bankruptcy nor statistics. This book will be of interest not only to scholars studying professional fees, but also to bankruptcy professionals, judges, policymakers, and anyone interested in the functioning of law-based systems.

Experience has shown that the complex issues raised by cross-border insolvencies cannot be adequately addressed by existing national bankruptcy law regimes. In order to deal effectively with such emerging factors as multi-jurisdictional intellectual property rights and contractual issues surrounding employment or immovable property - as well as such long-standing problem areas as choice of law and recognition of judgments - a system of international bankruptcy and insolvency law is needed. This monograph shows how such a system is ready to hand in Europe and potentially available at a global level. As an obvious step in this direction, Professor Torremans examines the EU Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings. He analyses all its provisions in detail, and sets out the solution it puts in place, partial and imperfect as it may be. He concludes that within the EU this Regulation promises to improve matters substantially, and that it bodes well to become a model for international co-operation in this area. To demonstrate the need for a coherent cross-border insolvency law regime, Professor Torremans first describes two very different national approaches, those of Belgium and the United Kingdom. He explores these two traditional approaches in detail, stressing their practical applications, and finds neither system can offer a satisfactory solution in a cross-border context. Finally, recognising that this problem does not stop at the EU's borders, Professor Torremans examines the UNCITRAL Model Law in detail to see whether it does indeed make a useful contribution.

Conflicts of interest arise naturally in all walks of life, particularly in business life. As general and indeed inevitable phenomena, conflicts of interest should not be prohibited but properly managed. This book presents indepth analysis of such management in three areas of corporate governance where the conflict-of-interest problems are particularly acute: executive compensation, financial analysis, and asset management. "Conflicts of Interest" presents the results of a two-year-long research project bringing together academics and practitioners in both law and finance from Europe and the US under the auspices of the Centre for Banking and Financial Law of the University of Geneva. This book discusses the following issues: the duty of loyalty; remedies, such as disclosure, incentives, organizational measures; regulation and enforcement; and market considerations. With its intense focus on the material effects of actual conflicts of interest at the core of modern corporate governance and financial markets, this incomparable book will inform not only business people, practitioners, and academics, but also legislators, regulators, and all concerned with the far-reaching ramifications of conflict-of-interest management.

Cross-Border Insolvency, fourth edition provides a comprehensive and up to date consideration of the topic of cross-border insolvency. Written in a clear and accessible manner it guides the user seamlessly through this complex area of law. The coverage of the book is divided into two parts. The first part describes the key cross-border insolvency regimes including the EC Insolvency Regulation, the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency, section 426 of the Insolvency Act 1986, and the common law. The second part focuses on specific issues in more detail, such as the court's insolvency jurisdiction, ancillary winding-up, enforcement of foreign insolvency judgments, foreign discharge of debts and insolvency set-off. The fourth edition gives full analysis of the fundamental changes to cross border insolvency law and practice in England including: The impact of the Supreme Court decision in Rubin v Eurofinance; The revised UK Insolvency Rules; Proposals for revision of the EC Insolvency Regulation; Scope of section 426 - HSBC v Tambrook Jersey; Developments in offshore jurisdictions: Primeo Fund and Saad Investments (Cayman), Re C (BVI); Kelmsley v Barclays Bank PLC. Previous print edition ISBN: 9781845921040

This authoritative treatise on bankruptcy fraud is an invaluable reference book for bankruptcy law practitioners, white-collar criminal lawyers, prosecutors, judges, restructuring professionals, and academicians. Bankruptcy Crimes is the only book extant on the subject and is unique in its dual perspective and analysis of criminality and bankruptcy law.

With the increasing interdependence of global economies, international relations are becoming a more complex system. Through this, the growth of any economy is dependent upon the ease of business transactions; however, in recent times, there has been a growing impact of corporate insolvency law. Corporate Insolvency Law and Bankruptcy Reforms in the Global Economy is an essential reference source that discusses the importance of insolvency laws in the financial architecture of emerging economies, as well as its fundamental issues. Featuring research on topics such as business restructuring, debt recovery, and governance regulations, this book is ideally designed for law students, policymakers, economists, lawyers, and business researchers seeking coverage on the jurisprudence and policy of corporate insolvency law in a globalized context.

This comprehensive book offers a thorough exposition and analysis of all aspects of the dissolution and restoration of companies. Considering all relevant UK legislation and case law, it examines the ways in which companies are both dissolved and restored, the issues that may arise in these processes, and the effects this has on the company and third parties. Key Features: Explanation of the processes leading to dissolution and restoration of companies Examination of the general and particular effects of dissolution and restoration on a company and other related and non-related parties Identification and analysis of the most important issues related to dissolution and restoration, with reference to leading cases in the area Background information that provides an understanding of the role and effect of dissolution and subsequent restoration of some companies to the register of companies Dissolution and Restoration of Companies will be invaluable for solicitors advising clients and dealing with the processes involved in dissolution and restoration, as well as barristers interested in the issues raised and related case law. It will also be useful for insolvency practitioners, and for academics working in corporate and insolvency law.

Foreword by Rt. Hon Mary Arden,D.B.E. The purpose of this new work is to provide an in-depth analysis of circumstances giving rise to the disqualification and personal liability of directors of insolvent companies. By way of introduction, the book commences by considering the legal indentification of a company director and the general corporate responsibilities and duties expected from a director of an insolvent company. Following the introduction, the first part of the work is devoted to an examination of the statutory provisions which may potentially render a director to be made personally liable to contribute to the debts and liabilities of an insolvent company. Accordingly, Part I of this book considers the law governing misfeasance proceedings, fraudulent trading, wrongful trading, phoenix companies and the misuse of corporate names under section 349(4) of the Companies Act 1985. Part II of the book involves an examination of the disqualification process under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986. The ability and powers of the courts to impose disqualification orders have generated an abundance of case law. Part II commences with a general analysis of the disqualification process before moving on to specifically concentrate its attention on section 6 of the Act, namely the disqualification of directors for unfit conduct. The final chapter of the work involves an analysis of the procedural aspects of the disqualification process. Table of Contents Part I - Personal Liability of Company Directors Chapter 1 - Introduction Chapter 2 - Misfeasance Proceedings Chapter 3 - Fraudulent Trading Chapter 4 - Wrongful Trading Chapter 5 - The Phoenix Syndrome Chapter 6 - Section 349(4) of the Companies Act 1985 Part II - Disqualification of Company Directors Chapter 7 - The Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 Chapter 8 - Disqualification for Unfit Conduct in the Management of an Insolvent Company (section 6, CDDA 1986) Chapter 9 - Procedural and Evidential Matters Pertinent to the CDDA 1986

Banks, Bankers, and Bankruptcies Under Crisis uses case studies of failed banks, banks that would have failed without taxpayer intervention, and in some cases banks obliged to merge under government pressure, to better understand global banking today.

This book is a comparative study of international practices in bankruptcy law, providing perspectives from a variety of specialisms including practitioners, lawyers, bankers, accountants and judges from the United Arab Emirates, the UK and Singapore.

How an economy handles financial and business distress has a major impact on confidence in business, the availability of investment, the cost of credit, and economic growth. The financial crisis of 2007-2008 and its aftermath was a catalyst to legal reform in the field of bankruptcy and restructuring law and brought an added focus to the systemic threat of bank failure to the financial system. This book explores the general principles and practice of legal reform within bankruptcy. From a variety of specialists including practitioners, lawyers, bankers, accountants and judges from the United Arab Emirates, the UK and Singapore, it provides a variety of perspectives on the topic. Chapters include topics such as the 'Four Pillars of Regulatory Framework', the history and application of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency, the challenges for financial institutions and the treatment of the insolvency of natural persons. The book also offers a comparative study of Islamic Shari'ah principles with modern bankruptcy regimes, an analysis of bankruptcy in the UAE and an evaluation of the legal infrastructure of the DIFC Courts. The authors explore core questions surrounding bankruptcy law, including its ability to facilitate the turnaround of business, to enable efficient reallocation of capital, to provide coherent rules for entrepreneurs, investors, employees, and creditors, and to provide for both appropriate sanctions and for rehabilitation. ?

INTRODUCTION TO BANKRUPTCY LAW, 6th edition is an excellent bankruptcy reference, whether the reader is a paralegal, a practicing attorney, or taking paralegal courses in bankruptcy law. Using a step-by-step approach, the text presents the reader with a clear and understandable explanation of each type of bankruptcy filing. Signature features include a brief history of bankruptcy law, research aids, alternatives to bankruptcy, a discussion of the role of the various parties involved in the bankruptcy process, and an overview concerning eligibility and the selection of the appropriate bankruptcy chapter under which the case should be filed. Also included are updated cases to detail bankruptcy legal procedures from initiation of the attorney/client relationship through the closing of the case. With its discussion of electronic filing, and updated changes in the Bankruptcy Code and the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, the new edition of INTRODUCTION TO BANKRUPTCY LAW, 6th edition is a valuable bankruptcy law resourc

Consumer Bankruptcy and over-indebtedness is an emerging field throughout the world. This book provides a comparative appraisal of global developments in this area. It is one of the first book length publications focusing on comparative consumer bankruptcy and over-indebtedness. It combines theoretical and empirical studies of bankruptcy regimes and consumer credit in civilian and common law jurisdictions as well as exploring current reform trends. The book will be of interest to academics, policymakers and law reformers as well as to practitioners.

Contracting with Companies surveys the main rules of company law governing the making of contracts with companies. It adopts an economic perspective, examining these rules in terms of the risks they apportion between companies and parties contracting with them. It reviews the use that has been made of economics in the analysis of company law and considers what guidance this can provide in analyzing corporate contracting. The book then examines the relevant law and the issues raised by this law, covering the role of corporate constitutions as the source of the authority of corporate agents, the mechanisms of corporate activity and decision-making, the identification of corporate contracting parties, pre-incorporation contracts and other contracts with non-existent companies, the contractual power of a company's board, the protection of parties dealing with subordinate corporate agents and the regulation of contracts in which a director has a conflict of interest.

Trustees at Work explores the role bankruptcy trustees play in determining who qualifies as a deserving debtor under Canadian personal bankruptcy law. The idea of a deserving debtor is woven throughout bankruptcy law, with debt relief being reserved for those debtors deemed deserving. The legislation and case law invite trustees to assess debtors based on their pre-bankruptcy choices, but in practice, trustees evaluate debtors based on how cooperative the debtors are during bankruptcy proceedings. This book uses interviews and statistical data to explain how the financial and emotional pressures of trustees' work shape their decision-making process.

Until recent years, formal bank insolvency proceedings were rare occurrences, with governments more often than not coming to the rescue of failing banks. As a result, few studies relating to bank failure have paid much attention to the regulatory framework for failing banks and the conduct of formal bank insolvency proceedings. However, in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, more attention has been focused on issues of bank insolvency. Structural reforms in the banking sector of various Asian countries, in particular the implementation of effective exit rules to expel insolvent and non-viable banks from the market, have been considered of primary importance to restoring confidence in the troubled banking sector. In addition, the ability of governments within the European Union to rescue insolvent banks has been significantly limited by strict rules on competition, suggesting that failing banks will become increasingly subject to insolvency proceedings. This text compares the legal framework for dealing with insolvent banks in Western Europe, the United States and Canada, identifying the distinctive features of each regime and discussing the main issues and choices in dealing with failing banks. It also examines the implications of a cross-border bank insolvency, and considers different approaches to the problems it raises, including the supranational approach of the proposed European Directive on the Reorganization and Winding-up of Credit Institutions. This work should be of value to lawmakers, to consultants and scholars engaged in technical assistance work, and to those who advise the legislators and officials involved in devising a legal framework for bank insolvency. It should also be of interest to practitioners and in-house counsel working in the field of banking and corporate law.

This book examines powers and remedies available to a liquidator or administrator that render 'vulnerable' the company's prior contractual commitments or proprietary dispositions so as to enhance the asset pool available to creditors. In the process,the book does two things. First, it offers comprehensive accounts of the relevant causes of action: undervalue transactions, preferences, late floating charges, unregistered charges, transactions defrauding creditors, gratuitous corporate transactions and post-petition dispositions in liquidation. Secondly, it seeks to raise issues about the context and purpose of these causes of action, many of which have not yet been fully explored in the case law or academic literature. These are considered through a discussion of their relationship to the pari passu principle; a restitutionary analysis of the remedial provisions; and issues arising specifically in cross-border and international insolvency proceedings. The book is thus a source of reference both for insolvency litigators and for transactional lawyers seeking advice on potential vulnerability. The thematic approach and rigorous analysis will also make it of interest to an academic readership.

The Law of Debtors and Creditors is a new case book for a three-unit law school course focusing on the basic principles of American debtor-creditor law. The book focuses on the law of execution on money judgments, using New York law as a paradigm. It also thoroughly covers fraudulent conveyance law, as it exists under state law and under bankruptcy in general. The book also explores the basic principles of chapter 7 liquidation, as well as a thorough review of the avoidance powers granted to a bankruptcy trustee under the Bankruptcy Code. Excluded from this volume is coverage of issues unique to consumer bankruptcy, on which the author has published a separate case book with Vandeplas Publishing, LLC.About the author: David Gray Carlson is Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of law. He is the author of a treatise on secured credit in bankruptcy and of over sixty law review articles on various aspects of bankruptcy and debtor-creditor law. Many of these articles have involved procedural and constitutional issues connected with the enforcement of money judgments obtained in state and federal courts and issues involving fraudulent conveyance and voidable preference law, all of which are implicated in the current volume. He has taught a basic debtor-creditor course for over 25 years. Besides teaching at Cardozo Law School, Carlson has taught at the George Washington School of Law, the, University of Miami Law School, the University of Michigan Law School, Washington & Lee School of Law, and the Interdisciplinary Institute at Herzlya, Israel.

The great novelty of Netherlands Insolvency Law is that it is the first book in the English language covering the Netherlands insolvency law as a whole. It is a practical book for use by internal and external legal counsel, Dutch and non Dutch companies, students, academics and practitioners alike, presenting not only the principal concepts but also the current state of affairs of the Netherlands in solvency law. The reader is offered not only the black letter law, but also impar tial discussions presenting differing views on particular aspects of the insolvency law. Furthermore, Netherlands Insolvency Law briefly addresses recent develop ments such as the EU Insolvency Regulation and the progress made on the ongo ing total revision of the Netherlands Bankruptcy Act in the "Marktwerking, Deregulering en Wetgevingskwaliteit (MDW)"-project. Declercq has successfully managed to strike such a balance that, on the one hand, the book offers the reader more than an average introduction, while on the other hand, it is not weighed down in a quagmire of technical detail. Declercq's experi ence and international exposure as an insolvency lawyer in one of the most repu table law fmns in the Netherlands has probably contributed in this respect. Netherlands Insolvency Law promises to become a standard textbook to a wide ranging audience. ANTONIUS I. M. vAN MIERLO ProfessorofLaw Erasmus University Rotterdam January 2002 VII TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface V Abbreviations XIII Introduction XVII CHAPTER 1 - THE NETHERLANDS BANKRUPTCY ACT 1."

The third edition of Consumer Bankruptcy is a case book designed for a two- or three-unit law school course focusing solely on the unique issues that arise under the United States Bankruptcy Code when an individual with primarily consumer debts files for bankruptcy. The book fully explores the complexities introduced in 2005 with the enactment of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, legislation that clearly sets out consumer bankruptcies as a very technical sub-specialty in the field of bankruptcy. Covered in this book are the barriers to entry by a consumer into chapter 7 liquidation, issues relating to discharge of debt, chapter 13 plans and chapter 13 cases converted to chapter 7. About the author: David Gray Carlson is Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He is the author of a treatise on secured credit in bankruptcy and of over sixty law review articles on various aspects of bankruptcy and debtor-creditor law. Five of these articles concern the effect of the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which revolutionized the law of consumer bankruptcies. He has taught a basic bankruptcy course for 25 years, before concluding that consumer bankruptcies had become such a sub-specialty that it is better taught in a course separate from the basic course. Besides teaching at Cardozo Law School, Carlson has taught at George Washington University Law School, University of Miami Law School, University of Michigan Law School and Washington & Lee School of Law.

Bankruptcy law is a major part of the American legal landscape. More than a million individuals and thousands of businesses sought relief in the United States' ninety-three bankruptcy courts in 2014, more than twenty-seven thousand of them in the Eastern District of Michigan. Important business of great consequence takes place in the courts, yet they ordinarily draw little public attention. In Adversity and Justice: A History of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Kevin Ball takes a closer look at the history and evolution of this court. Using a variety of sources from newspaper accounts and interviews to personal documentation from key people throughout the court's history, Ball explores not only the history of the court from its beginning in the late nineteenth century but also two major courthouse scandals and their significant and long-lasting effects on the court. The first, in 1919, resulted in the removal of a court referee for a series of small infractions. The second was far more serious and resulted in the resignation of a judge and criminal convictions of the court's chief clerk, one of his deputies, and one of Detroit's most prominent lawyers. The book culminates with a comprehensive account of the city of Detroit's own bankruptcy case that was filed in 2013. Drawing on the author's expertise as both a longtime bankruptcy attorney and a political scientist, the book examines this landmark case in its legal, social, historical, and political contexts. Anyone with an interest in bankruptcy, legal history, or the city of Detroit's bankruptcy case will be attracted to this thorough case study of this court.

This book explains how a creditor of an insolvent debtor can take priority over other creditors by claiming a proprietary interest in assets held by the debtor, and concentrates on the circumstances in which proprietary interests are created by operation of law or are implied from the arrangements between the parties. This is a subject of particular importance and difficulty in common law systems because of the changeable nature of equitable proprietary interests, and this book provides a clear and structured explanation of the current state of the law, with detailed reference to case law from England and Wales as well as Commonwealth jurisprudence, and suggests how it might be clarified and simplified by returning to first principles. The new edition considers a number of important developments which pertain to proprietary rights and insolvency. It evaluates the key decision of the Supreme Court in FHR European Ventures v Cedar Capital Partners. Although this has settled the question of whether constructive trusts extend to bribes, it has raised more general issues regarding the approach of the courts to the imposition of proprietary remedies, which the book explores. It also covers recent Privy Council and Court of Appeal decisions concerning constructive notice (Credit Agricole v Papadimitrou, Central Bank of Ecuador v Conticorp, and SFO v Lexi), as well as interesting issues concerning the new status of intangibles (Armstrong v Winnington) and the status of the anti-deprivation rule (Belmont Park v BNY). Proprietary Rights and Insolvency is a lucid and practical reference source on insolvency and property law.