Bankruptcy in America, in stark contrast to its status in most other countries, typically signifies not a debtor's last gasp but an opportunity to catch one's breath and recoup. Why has the nation's legal system evolved to allow both corporate and individual debtors greater control over their...

Preface -- Introduction -- Before bankruptcy : conflict solution strategies of upper German / Mechthild Isenmann -- Trading companies in the fifteenth and "long" sixteenth centuries / Wolfgang Forster -- Failed memoria : rights of patronage and of burial in bankruptcy / Dave De ruysscher -- The...