For more than two decades, a debate has raged over what to make of vindicatory contempts, a class of ostensibly civil contempt orders intended to punish a debtor for his or her defiance of prior judicial orders issued pre-petition by a state court. Because § 362(a)(1) applies to all judicial...

This article argues that the enforcement in England in Re New Cap Reinsurance Corporation of an Australian monetary judgment rendered under Australian insolvency law does not sit easily with the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1933. This is because the Foreign Judgments...

This paper, which was written as a White Paper for the Federalist Society, describes and assesses the question whether public employee pensions can be restructured in bankruptcy, with a particular focus on Detroit. Part I gives a brief overview both of the treatment of pensions under state law,...

In explaining the concept of centre of main interests (COMI) within the UK Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 (CBIR), the Englush court in Re Stanford International Bank over-emphasised third-party ascertainability due to an apparent lack of appreciation of the different functions...

Since 1978, dismissals of involuntary bankruptcy petitions due to petitioning creditors' bad faith have proliferated. In the process, a textual oddity has not gone unnoticed: even as “bad faith” is denominated as the basis for an award of punitive damages, nowhere in the Bankruptcy Code's...

Modern Chapter 9 litigation has been characterized by extraordinary protections for municipal bondholders, and Central Falls is no exception. Although not well understood by politicians, fear of contagion has encouraged the adoption of legal arrangements that have limited the bankruptcy courts'...

Municipal bankruptcies are unpredictable. There are several reasons for this statement — municipal bankruptcies are rare, involvement of the state itself in the process varies according to the governing state law, and chapter 9, the Bankruptcy Code chapter governing the municipal bankruptcy...

The proliferation of rules aimed at the management of cross-border insolvencies has not been coupled with sufficient attention to the choice of law rules relating to the avoidance of antecedent transactions as legal acts detrimental to all the creditors. This article is the first of its kind in...

Recent credit difficulties have revealed the potential inadequacies of UK insolvency regimes applicable to credit institutions, prompting the UK regulatory authorities to consult on the possibility of insolvency reform. This article discusses the recent credit crisis, considers the US bank...

The rapid growth of international economic activity in the recent decades has brought forth a unique and formidable policy challenge. The challenge consists of reconciling two goals which sometimes compete directly with one another: creating a regime that allows economic interaction between...