Courts in municipal bankruptcy cases have confronted the inherent vagueness in the statutory tests for municipal “insolvency” by embracing a test of “service delivery insolvency.” That test is typically evaluated in terms of a significant reduction in the availability of city services....

This short paper is fundamentally a reflection on the subject, a medium size Italian municipality, that one of Terni, with about 110.000 inhabitants (number rather stable from 2000), about 1.000 employees and a budget (2008) of €370 million. This municipality has 3 fully owned corporations,...

When a municipality is the debtor, as is the case in chapter 9 municipal bankruptcies, one might assume that the law recognizes community/taxpayer interests at all stages of chapter 9 proceedings. That assumption would be incorrect. Unlike bondholders, public employees (active and retired), and...