Holmes’s “bad man” view of the common law and his effort to capture contractual liability as option to perform or pay damages grew out of a debate he was having with another legal scholar in an exchange of letters that has largely been forgotten. Holmes’s opponent in this debate —...

Perhaps within the next decade, the technology of quot;reanimationquot; will allow film producers to cast any actor, living or dead, in any role. In this respect, there will soon be no difference between Humphrey Bogart and Mickey Mouse. Soon a sequel to the Maltese Falcon can star Bogart as he...

This paper shows that the dynamics of Chapter 11 turn dramatically on the size of the business. The vast majority of the assets administered in Chapter 11 are concentrated in a handful of large cases, but most of the businesses in Chapter 11 are small, and the smaller the business, the smaller...

In a Chapter 11 reorganization, senior creditors are entitled to insist upon being paid in full before anyone junior to them receives anything. In practice, however, departures from such quot;absolute priorityquot; are commonplace. Explaining these deviations has been a central preoccupation of...

Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code is organized around the absolute priority rule. This rule mandates the rank-ordering of claims. If one creditor has priority over another, this creditor must be paid in full before the one junior receives anything. Many have suggested various modifications to...

Over the last few years, reorganization practice has undergone a massive change. A new device — the restructuring support agreement — has transformed Chapter 11 negotiations. This puts reorganization law at a crossroads. Chapter 11's commitment to a nonmarket restructuring with a rigid...

Lenders have long included savings clauses in loan documents as a way to minimize exposure to fraudulent conveyance at-tacks. This paper suggests that scope of operation of savings clauses is exceeding small. Those cases in which lenders find themselves exposed to fraudulent conveyance liability...