Since the adoption of the EU Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings in 2000 and its recast in 2015, it has become clear that lawyers engaged in consumer insolvency proceedings are increasingly expected to have a basic understanding of foreign insolvency proceedings, as well as knowledge of the foreign country's court and legal system, legislation and judicial practice. Written by 50 highly qualified insolvency experts from 30 European countries, A Guide to Consumer Insolvency Proceedings in Europe provides the necessary information in the largest, most up-to-date and comprehensive book on this topic. Assisting the readers in their navigation through the differences, similarities, and peculiarities of insolvency proceedings in all Member States of the European Union, Switzerland and Russia, this book is a unique guide to insolvency proceedings across Europe. With contributions by both academics and practitioners, it provides truly multinational coverage of the economic, legal, social, political, and demographic issues in consumer insolvency. Illustrating the numerous practices across Europe, this book allows the reader to evaluate each aspect both on its own merits, as well as in comparison to the approaches applied in other European jurisdictions. This book will be an invaluable tool for insolvency practitioners, judges, lawyers, creditors and debtors throughout Europe, especially those participating in cross-border proceedings.

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.

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.

This edited volume is based on the European Law Institute's (ELI) project 'Rescue of Business in Insolvency Law'. The project ran from 2013 to 2017 under the auspices of the ELI and was conducted by Bob Wessels and Stephan Madaus, who were assisted by Gert-Jan Boon. The study sought to design (elements of) a legal framework that will enable the further development of coherent and functional rules for business rescue in Europe. This includes certain statutory procedures that could better enable parties to negotiate solutions where a business becomes financially distressed. Such a framework also includes rules to determine in which procedures and under which conditions an enforceable solution can be imposed upon creditors and other stakeholders despite their lack of consent. The project had a broad scope, and extended to consider frameworks that can be used by (non-financial) businesses out of court, and in a pre-insolvency context. Part I of this book, the ELI Instrument as approved by the ELI Council and General Assembly, features 115 recommendations on a wide variety of themes affected by the rescue of financially distressed businesses, such as the legal rules for professions and courts, treatment and ranking of creditors' claims, contract, corporate and labour law as well as laws relating to transaction avoidance. Part II consists of national reports that sketch the legal landscape in 13 States and of an 'Inventory Report on International Recommendations from Standard-Setting Organisations', both of which provided insight for the drafting of the Instrument. This volume is designed to assist those involved in a process of law reform and those setting standards for soft law in the business rescue context.

Subjects: Debt Adjustment; Consumer Insolvency; Managing Household Debts in the EU.