The Anatomy of Corporate Insolvency Law

The Anatomy of Corporate Insolvency Law dissects corporate insolvency law into its constituent elements, analysing them through a comparative and functional lens. Over the past forty years, corporate insolvency law has become a field of extraordinary practical relevance and increasing intellectual fascination. On the one hand, academics, policymakers, and practitioners have reoriented insolvency law in favour of rescuing distressed companies. On the other hand, this evolution has reshaped foundational categories of the legal culture, blurring (for instance) the traditional distinction between 'contract' and 'proceedings'. The chapters in The Anatomy of Corporate Insolvency Law analyse central topics in this vibrant field and examines where it intersects with labour law and taxation law. The volume traces corporate insolvency law across key global jurisdictions, exploring how various jurisdictions might differently approach the same issues; to what extent two solutions that appear dissimilar really diverge; and vice-versa, to what extent two seemingly similar solutions might actually differ. In doing so, it facilitates cooperation and communication across jurisdictions, and explains how solutions adopted in one jurisdiction might be applicable in another. Suitable for students, scholars, and practitioners, this new work will provide the reader with a solid framework to understand corporate law from a comparative perspective.

1 - What is Insolvency Law?
2 - Distress, Insolvency, and the Likelihood of Insolvency
3 - Debt Restructuring Outside Formal Insolvency Proceedings
4 - Formal Insolvency Proceedings
5 - Security Rights and Creditors' Priority and Ranking: Realisable Priority in Rescue
6 - Transactions Avoidance Rules
7 - Directors' Duties in the Vicinity of Insolvency. Disqualification. Piercing the Veil
8 - Corporate Groups in Rescue
9 - Cross-Border Insolvency Law
10 - Aspects of Tax Law
11 - Aspects of Labour Law

Reinhard Bork was Professor of Law at the Universities of Bonn (1989) and Hamburg (1990-2022), where he held a chair for Civil and General Procedural Law. He has held visiting positions at the University of Oxford and Radboud University Nijmegen, and has also served as a judge at the Upper State Court (Court of Appeal) in Hamburg. He has broad experience as an arbitrator in national and international cases since 1994. Professor Bork has published widely in both German and English on civil law, corporate law, and insolvency Law. Renato Mangano is a Full Professor of Commercial Law at Palermo University. An External Expert of the European Commission in Insolvency Law, he has been a visitor of various Universities or Research organizations, including the University of Cambridge, Hamburg University, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (Hamburg), the University of Oxford, and University of International Business and Economics (Beijing). His academic interests include insolvency law, company law, and the legal aspects of digital assets.