This paper critically reviews the EU Commission's proposals for a reform of the European Insolvency Regulation (EIR …). The focus of the paper is on the Regulation's use as a tool for business restructuring in Europe. The paper argues that … businesses is not an end in itself. Further, the Commission is too cautious regarding the harmonisation of substantive insolvency …

of personal bankruptcy law. Whilst there is an intuitive link between the two, relatively little attention has been paid … to the question empirically, particularly in the international context. We investigate the link between bankruptcy and … indices reflecting how `forgiving' personal bankruptcy laws are, reflecting the time to discharge. These measures vary over …