After many years of negotiations among Member States, a uniform set of private international law rules has been established to determine the conduct of cross-border insolvency proceedings within the European Community. This is the European Insolvency Regulation of May 2000. Although each state still retains its own insolvency law, the regulation greatly reduces the risk of opportunistic behaviour by providing certainty as to which European courts have jurisdiction to open insolvency proceedings and which state?s laws apply, in addition to ensuring the cross-border effectiveness within the EU of the decisions handed down by those courts. This in-depth commentary offers practitioners in international business transactions and litigation a definitive guide to the workings of the Insolvency Regulation. The authors?one of whom co-wrote the official explanatory report on the 1995 Convention on Insolvency Proceedings, a report that still plays a fundamental hermeneutic role?leave no stone unturned in their probing analysis, which explains in detail such elements as the following: relationship with other community legal instruments and international conventions; territorial scope; substantive scope; third-party rights in rem and reservation of title; set-off; contracts relating to immovable property; employment contracts and relationships; payment systems and financial markets; community patents and trademarks; publication and registration; lodgement of claims; and special considerations affecting credit institutions and insurance undertakings. Company lawyers handling insolvency cases and issues will find nothing comparable to this expert work. Its direct practical usefulness is immediately apparent. In addition, however, it stands out as a preeminent work on a critical and hard-won legal instrument (and by extension on the entire field of European insolvency law) and as such is an essential resource for jurists and legal academics.

According to some commentators, forum shopping is an “evil” that must be eradicated. It has been suggested that the unification of substantive law through international conventions constitutes one way to achieve this outcome. This book shows that the drafting of uniform substantive law convention cannot prevent forum shopping. The reasons are classified into two main categories: convention-extrinsic and convention-intrinsic reasons. The former category comprises those reasons upon which uniform substantive law conventions do not have an impact at all. These reasons range from the costs of access to justice to the bias of potential adjudicators to the enforceability of judgments. The convention-intrinsic reasons, on the other hand, are reasons that relate to the nature and design of uniform substantive law conventions, and include their limited substantive and international spheres of application as well as their limited scope of application, the need to provide for reservations, etc. This book also focuses on another reason why forum shopping cannot be overcome: the impossibility of ensuring uniform applications and interpretations of the various uniform substantive law conventions.

This book comprises contributions relating to the Insolvency Regulation Recast,which recently entered into force. The authors analyse the changes introduced andgive their views on the improvements that are thereby achieved. In other words, theyassess to what extent the amendments have mitigated the disadvantages of the previousInsolvency Regulation. Three of the chapters concentrate on the issues pertaining to jurisdiction, such asthe problem of forum shopping by re-locating the debtor’s centre of main interests.Furthermore, the extent to which the parties have the freedom to contract withinthe framework of the Insolvency Regulation Recast is discussed. Also, the relevanceand consequences of recent developments in corporate law for the current crossborderinsolvency framework, as well as the jurisdictional issues concerning approvalrequirements are amongst the matters addressed. Aside from the jurisdictional matters,the question of the law applicable to so-called ‘avoidance actions’ is analysed and crossbordercooperation between national authorities in the field of insolvency is touchedupon. To conclude, this book covers a range of specific and intriguing topics broughtup by the Insolvency Regulations Recast. This third volume in the Short Studies in Private International Law Series is primarilyaimed at legal academics dealing with cross-border insolvency, but it will also proveuseful to insolvency judges and practitioners, as well as those specialised in financialand fiscal law. Finally, advanced students as well as those with a general interest ininsolvency law will also find it of added value./div Vesna Lazić is Senior Researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Institute and Associate Professorof Private Law at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. Steven Stuij is an expert inprivate international law and PhD Candidate at the Erasmus School of Law, Rotterdam./div

An eye-opening account of the widespread and systematic decay of America's bankruptcy courts

This comprehensive book provides a clear analysis of the main features of the European Insolvency Regulation 2015/848, within the context of previous EU initiatives, as well as addressing the contrasting objectives of universalism and territorialism which underpin cross border insolvency law. It measures the EU regulations against the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross Border Insolvency and compares this with how the Model Law has been implemented elsewhere, such as in the US and the UK.

Comparative Insolvency Law argues that the most important development in contemporary insolvency law and practice is the shift towards a rescue culture rather than full creditor satisfaction. This book is the first to specifically examine the rise of the pre-pack approach, which permits debtor companies to formulate a clear pre-arranged exit before entering into formal insolvency proceedings.

In the European Union, the effectiveness of judicial protection granted to a business or consumer in crisis depends on the extent and manner in which court rulings in bankruptcy and restructuring cases are recognised in all Member States. This article-by-article commentary on Regulation (EU) 2015/848 provides expert guidance through the entire course of insolvency proceedings, clearly showing how to solve specific problems that arise in insolvency cases with a cross-border element, including aspects such as jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforceability of judgments and coordination of group of companies’ insolvencies. For any party instituting an insolvency proceeding in an EU Member State, the commentary provides such detailed guidance as the following: identifying the appropriate internationally competent court for filing; terms pursuant to which a judgment can be recognised; duties of an insolvency practitioner (IP); IP’s authority in the territory of another state; IP’s obligations towards creditors in another state; rights of foreign creditors; admissibility of conducting secondary insolvency proceedings; conducting simultaneous insolvency proceedings against the same debtor; permissible forms of contact and cooperation between judges and parties to the proceedings; and conducting proceedings involving a group of companies. An important feature of the commentary highlights the standpoints of lawyers from Central and Eastern Europe, where the commercial judiciary operates in a distinctly different way from that in countries with a well-established market economy system. Interpretation of provisions of the Regulation by lawyers from this part of Europe enhances the scope of legal argument both in the economic sphere and in the sphere of justice. With its detailed and in-depth description of international jurisdiction, recognition, and universal and territorial effects of insolvency proceedings, this practical book will be welcomed by counsel to business persons conducting international activity, trustees in bankruptcy, tax advisers, court enforcement officers, academics dealing with insolvency law, banks dealing with the collection of receivables, and debt collection companies. In addition, as a contribution to the debate on the optimal model for the international consequences of insolvency proceedings, its discussion of issues related to national jurisdiction, bankruptcy and restructuring of groups of companies, and international judicial cooperation will be particularly valuable for researchers.