A Debtor World contains a collection of contributions about the societal implications of private debt. The essays comprising this volume are authored by dozens of leading U.S. and international academics who have written about debt or issues related to debt in a wide range of disciplines including law, sociology, psychology, history, economics, and more.
The goal of this collection is to explore debt neither as a problem nor a solution but as a phenomenon and to promote the exchange of knowledge to better comprehend why consumers and businesses decide to borrow money. It asks what happens to businesses and consumers under a heavy debt load, and what legal norms and institutions societies need to encourage the efficient use of debt while promoting a greater understanding of the global phenomenon of increased indebtedness and societal dependence.

In this Research Handbook, today's leading experts on the law and economics of corporate bankruptcy address fundamental issues such as the efficiency of bankruptcy, the role and treatment of creditors - particularly secured creditors - in the bankruptcy process, the allocation of going-concern surplus among claimants, the desirability of liquidation in the absence of such surplus, the role of contract in bankruptcy resolution, the role of derivatives in the bankruptcy process, the costs of the bankruptcy system, and the special case of financial institutions, among other topics. Chapters trace the historical path of both law and policy analysis, with a focus on how the bankruptcy process serves underlying policy objectives. Proposals to reform corporate bankruptcy are presented. Research Handbook on Corporate Bankruptcy Law includes policy analysis by both lawyers and economists and is thus an invaluable resource to law scholars and students interested in the economic analysis of corporate bankruptcy law, as well as to economics and business scholars and students studying the law of corporate bankruptcy. These pages will prove equally valuable to lawmakers and judges who are interested in policy analysis of corporate bankruptcy. Contributors include: K. Ayotte, D.G. Baird, A.J. Casey, T.H. Jackson, M.B. Jacoby, E.J. Janger, S.J. Lubben, E.R. Morrison, J.A.E. Pottow, R.K. Rasmussen, M.J. Roe, A. Schwartz, M. Simkovic, D. Skeel, R. Squire, G. Triantis, M.J. White, T.J. Zywicki

A compendium of forty five articles on the restructuring process intended as a guide for corporate directors and officers.

This book shows that a special bank bankruptcy regime is desirable for the efficient restructuring and/or liquidation of distressed banks. It explores in detail both the principal features of corporate bankruptcy law and the specific characteristics of banks including the importance of public confidence, negative externalities of bank failures, fragmented regulatory framework, bank opaqueness, and the related asset-substitution problem and liquidity provision. These features distinguish banks from other corporations and are largely neglected in corporate bankruptcy law. The authors, an assistant professor for money and finance and a research economist at the Dutch Central Bank, propose changes in both prudential regulation and reorganization policies that should allow regulators and banking authorities to better mitigate disruptions in the financial system and minimize the social costs of bank failures. Their recommendations are complemented by a discussion of bank failures from the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

The subject of bank stability has been under a great amount of political and legislative scrutiny since the mid-2007 to late-2009 global financial crisis. However, these efforts have centred on developed economies. Little coverage is given to strategies adopted by many developing economies. While there is a global discourse on the subject of insolvency generally, there is ample scope to contribute to the growing body of work on the narrow subject of bank insolvencies. This book provides a unique perspective on an emerging theme in at least two respects. First is the focus on selected developing economies and selected developed economies in the EMEA region alongside cross-border developments, with the objective of deciphering the regulatory approach to bank insolvencies. The second is the analytical consideration of methods that may be implemented to preclude or resolve bank insolvencies in developing economies. This book explores the nexus between developing economies and their banking institutions. Developing economies are acutely dependent on their banks for the functioning of their cash-based economies. Recent events, however, suggest a weakness in the long-term viability of some of their banks and a mixed-bag regulatory approach to redress this weakness. This book evaluates the effectiveness of regulatory frameworks in selected developing economies that are designed to prevent or resolve the insolvency of banks. At a time of global economic uncertainty, this book will prove to be a valuable resource to the discourse on the viability of banks, businesses, and economies in developing States.

This book is a comprehensive commentary on the EIR in light of recent decisions of the ECJ and decisions of the judicatures of the various Member States of the EU. It contains a commentary on Article 102, Sections 1 to 11 of the German EGInsO (The Act Introducing the Insolvency Act), as well as country reports on the international insolvency laws of France, Great Britain, and Hungary. This book also deals with the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency together with detailed references to the international insolvency laws of the U.S.A., and it also includes a discussion of protocols. The appendix to the commentary on Article 3 of the EIR contains an extensive Table of Cases, which sets out over 100 cases from the various Member States, including decisions and literature references. While thus being tailored to the needs of the European insolvency practitioner, this commentary also serves as a knowledge-base from which further exploration of the material can begin. The contributing authors are all well-respected academics and practitioners in Germany, England, France, Hungary, and the U.S.A.

There is increasing regulatory interdependence amongst Central, East and South East Asian, European and North American financial markets, and these markets account for over one-third of the world's population and global financial markets. As Asian markets become more integral to global financial economy, more cohesive, compatible and integrated insolvency and restructuring laws are essential. This two-volume work reviews why we should internationalise current cross-border insolvency and how we could restructure laws to address inadequacies. The two volumes evaluate international regulatory reforms directed at detecting and managing cross-border insolvency and restructuring crises across the entire economy including financial markets. The authors call for schemes of arrangements and letters of comfort to be formally accepted as international legal tools. The work also assesses recent, but as yet largely unregulated developments in financial agreements, particularly the use of close-out netting provisions that serve as significant protective mechanisms prior to the declaration of an insolvency. It discusses international arbitration, data protection and artificial intelligence in crossborder insolvency and restructuring. Finally, the book seeks a meaningful balance between self-regulation through financial contracts and other party practices, and regulation imposed by governments and international financial regulators. This extensive work will be a useful reference for legal practitioners, policy makers and scholars working on financial regulation and international financial laws.

There is increasing regulatory interdependence amongst Central, East and South East Asia, European and North American financial markets, and these markets account for over one-third of the world's population and global financial markets. As these Asian markets become more integral to global financial economy, more cohesive, compatible and integrated insolvency and restructuring laws are essential. This two-volume work reviews why we should internationalise current cross-border insolvency and how we could restructure laws to address inadequacies. The two-volume work evaluates international regulatory reforms directed at detecting and managing cross-border insolvency and restructuring crises across the entire economy including financial markets. The authors call for schemes of arrangements and letters of comfort to be formally accepted as international legal tools. The work also assesses recent, but as yet unregulated developments in financial agreements, namely, the use of close-out netting provisions. They are a significant preventative legal mechanism, protecting debtors, creditors and employees among others, before a declaration of insolvency. The book discusses international arbitration, data protection and artificial intelligence in cross-border insolvency and restructuring. Finally, it seeks a meaningful balance between self-regulation through financial contracts and other party practices, and regulation imposed by governments and international financial regulators. This extensive work will be a useful reference for legal practitioners, policy makers and scholars working on financial regulation and international financial laws.

International Cooperation in Bankruptcy and Insolvency is published in cooperation with the International Insolvency Institute and the American College of Bankruptcy. The Honorable Bruce A. Markell, Dr. Bob Wessels and Prof. Jason Kilborn provide readers with invaluable insights into the origin, development and future of communication and cooperation in cross-border insolvency cases between insolvency practitioners and the courts. The globalization of the world's economy has led to highly complex international aspects of financial reorganization and restructuring. This publication analyzes the structures, systems, and practices that have developed and are quickly emerging to coordinate and enhance international administrations.

Critically analyzing the substantive law of insolvency in the EU countries as a whole, this book carries out horizontal cross-cutting analysis of the data gathered from a study of national insolvency laws. It selects particular areas for detailed discussion and considers the pros and cons of particular legislative solutions. Using the US and Norway as comparator countries, the expert authors identify areas where disparities in national laws produce problems that have impacts outside national boundaries. They analyse these against key policy goals including; improving economic performance throughout the EU, Promoting a more competitive business environment, efficient asset allocation and building more stable and sustainable human capital in terms of support for entrepreneuers and responses to consumer overindebtedness. The book also considers possible reform and harmonisation measures situated against the wider contextual background of the Capital Markets Union and the Europe 2020 agenda of promoting jobs and growth. Discerning and practical, European Insolvency Law will appeal to academics in both insolvency and finance as well as Insolvency practitioners and lawyers. Its reform suggestions will be of interest to EU Member States' government departments as well as providing a useful reference for Consumer associations and Debt charities.

This book presents problems that often arise in the context of international/cross-border insolvencies; analyzes and compares national legislations and jurisprudence; elucidates the solutions offered by international/regional instruments; and explores the differences in the implementation of these instruments by various countries and the consequences of these differences. It examines in detail a number of famous and less famous cases tried by national courts, in which it became readily apparent that insolvency law remains one of the bastions of national law. In addition, the book discusses the notion of transplanting foreign [international] insolvency rules and especially the influence that US insolvency law has exerted on other countries' insolvency [and international insolvency] law. Far from adopting an unrealistically optimistic stance, it soberly examines the complications of cross-border insolvencies, while also presenting potential solutions.

As a result of resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macao as well as the uncertain relationship between the Mainland and Taiwan, China has become a country composed of peculiar political compounds, resulting in four independent jurisdictions. This makes inter-regional legal cooperation a complicated yet compelling topic. Divided into five parts, this book considers possible solutions to problems in China's inter-regional cross-border insolvency cooperation. These solutions are developed on the basis of two groups of comparative studies, including comparison among the cross-border insolvency systems of the four independent jurisdictions in China and comparison between EU Insolvency Regulation and the UNCITRAL Model Law. The author discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the two systems and presents original recommendations for the way forward. The book will be a valuable resource for academics and policy makers in insolvency law, Asian law and comparative law.

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.

Since the great financial crisis, many countries across the globe have witnessed the introduction of new recovery and resolution regimes for banks. The Research Handbook on Cross-Border Bank Resolution analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the current regulatory framework for resolving cross-border bank crises and proposes avenues for improvement. This cutting edge Research Handbook includes a broad range of perspectives of the regulatory and economic infrastructure of the banks themselves, third parties, and real life case studies, on both a domestic and, in particular, an international level. Chapters are authored by eminent experts in the field with contributions from the US, EU, Japan and China. With its comprehensive and rounded analysis of cross-border bank resolution, this wide-ranging Research Handbook will be of value to academics and researchers across the globe. The practical issues and policy recommendations included will also be of benefit for policy makers within the banking sector and bankers and lawyers alike.

International insolvency is a newly-established branch of the study of insolvency that owes much to the phenomenon of cross-border incorporations and the conduct of business in more than one jurisdiction. It is largely the offspring of globalization and involves looking at both law and economic rules. This book is a compendium of essays by eminent academics and practitioners in the field who trace the development of the subject, give an account of the influences of economics, legal history and private international law, and chart its relationship with finance and security issues as well as the importance of business rescue as a phenomenon. Furthermore, the essays examine how international instruments introduced in recent years function as well as how the subject itself is continually being innovated by being confronted by the challenges of other areas of law with which it becomes entangled.

In Debtor Protection in American and European Union Bankruptcy Law, international law scholar Dimitris Liakopulos raises a delicate issue at the foundations of the modern banking system by analyzing US bankruptcy law with a focus on the concept of automatic stay. His work identifies legal sources and authorities having repercussions in terms of operational protection. It then examines their functional profiles, with specific regard to procedure. The book then examines criminal exposure in US bankruptcy law, paying particular attention to crime figures closer to those contained in American bankruptcy law. The book's third part assesses the lack of a discipline in these areas, a cumbersome gap observable at both the international and regional levels. The financial crisis of 2008 recalled the necessity and importance of a coordinated and usable crisis resolution mechanism for large financial conglomerates. The lack of discipline in the field of cross-border insolvency, and especially in the banking sector, stands out among studies and legislative instruments that have attempted to address questions of private international law, and of procedural law or of substantive law.

The first and only concise introduction to American business insolvency law, this volume provides a succinct overview of American business bankruptcy as it is actually practiced, integrating the law as written and implemented. American Business Bankruptcy includes coverage of specialized proceedings like brokerage liquidations, pre-packaged chapter 11 cases, and 363 sales. Professor Lubben also reviews the transnational aspects of modern American bankruptcy practice, and explains chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, which allows for foreign insolvency proceedings to be ''recognized'' in U.S. courts. U.S law students and junior attorneys, international insolvency professionals, and non-legal professionals, including bankers and accountants, will appreciate this practical synthesis, which includes citations and guidance for further research.

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.

This book covers the pressing issues of cross-border cases involving admiralty and bankruptcy law. For example, what should happen when a shipowner files an insolvency proceeding in one country, while at the same time facing an in rem action against its vessel in another country? Should the in rem action arising in one country be stayed or dismissed because of the existence of insolvency proceedings in another country? The book discusses the relevant issues regarding the treatment of maritime creditors throughout insolvency proceedings, the determination of the 'centre of main interest' of an offshore shipping company, and the scope of a debtor's assets. The author uses a comparative law analysis, selecting four leading shipping countries - Australia, the UK, the US, and Singapore - and examines their approaches to the above three problems when applying the UNCITRAL Model Law regime. The book also proposes a solution to help eliminate the ambiguity arising from maritime cross-border insolvency cases under the UNCITRAL Model Law regime, with a view to enhancing the development of the shipping industry.

This textbook deals with the foundations and key issues of corporate insolvency law and approaches the topic from a comparative perspective, i.e. it does not concentrate on one insolvency law in particular but rather introduces the relevant rules from various jurisdictions, primarily England (and Wales), France, Germany, and those of the USA. It is case focused and designed for learning and teaching corporate insolvency law.

International insolvency is a newly-established branch of the study of insolvency that owes much to the phenomenon of cross-border incorporations and the conduct of business in more than one jurisdiction. It is largely the offspring of globalisation and involves looking at both law and economic rules. This book is a compendium of essays by eminent academics and practitioners in the field, who trace the development of the subject, give an account of the influences of economics, legal history and private international law and chart its relationship with finance and security issues as well as the importance of business rescue as a phenomenon. Furthermore, the essays examine how international instruments introduced in recent years function as well as how the subject itself is continually being innovated by being confronted by the challenges of other areas of law with which it becomes entangled.

The subject of bank stability has been under a great amount of political and legislative scrutiny since the mid-2007 to late-2009 global financial crisis. However, these efforts have centred on developed economies. Little coverage is given to strategies adopted by many developing economies. While there is a global discourse on the subject of insolvency generally, there is ample scope to contribute to the growing body of work on the narrow subject of bank insolvencies. This book provides a unique perspective on an emerging theme in at least two respects. First is the focus on selected developing economies and selected developed economies in the EMEA region alongside cross-border developments, with the objective of deciphering the regulatory approach to bank insolvencies. The second is the analytical consideration of methods that may be implemented to preclude or resolve bank insolvencies in developing economies. This book explores the nexus between developing economies and their banking institutions. Developing economies are acutely dependent on their banks for the functioning of their cash-based economies. Recent events, however, suggest a weakness in the long-term viability of some of their banks and a mixed-bag regulatory approach to redress this weakness. This book evaluates the effectiveness of regulatory frameworks in selected developing economies that are designed to prevent or resolve the insolvency of banks. At a time of global economic uncertainty, this book will prove to be a valuable resource to the discourse on the viability of banks, businesses, and economies in developing States.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of 4 economically significant Asian jurisdictions: Mainland China, India, Hong Kong and Singapore. These jurisdictions have recently either reformed - or are considering reforming - their corporate restructuring laws to promote regimes conducive to restructuring financially distressed, but otherwise economically viable, companies. Mainland China, India, Hong Kong and Singapore continue to adhere to a framework that requires the court's final approval but draw references from Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code 1978 in the United States and/or the schemes of arrangement in the United Kingdom. However, the institutional and market structures are very different in Asia; in particular, Asia has a far higher concentration in shareholdings among listed firms, including holdings by families and the state, and a different composition of creditors. The book explains how, notwithstanding the legal transplantation, corporate restructuring laws in these Asian jurisdictions have adapted and evolved due to the frictions in shareholder-creditor and creditor-creditor relationships, and the role of the state in resolving non-performing loans and financial distress of state-owned enterprises which are listed, or which issue public debt. The study argues that any reforms must go beyond professionalising the insolvency professionals and the judiciary but must be designed to address fundamental issues of corporate governance, bank regulation and enforcing non-bankruptcy rules. It offers invaluable insights for academics and policy makers alike.