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This paper critically examines a new European approach to business failure and insolvency. It addresses the broader political dimensions of the subject and sets the new European approach in the context of the objectives of insolvency law to rescue viable businesses and to liquidate non-viable ones. The comparable US procedure – Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code – is used as a reference point for detailed analysis. The paper suggests that the new approach is of particular importance and adds value in those EU Member States that have underdeveloped restructuring frameworks. It is also suggested however, that any measures of legislative harmonisation should be of the minimum harmonisation variety leaving scope for regulatory differentiation and allowing national governments to build on local restructuring frameworks and domestic business practices that work well. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China has long been under external pressure to develop a market-based approach to bankruptcies and reduce state involvement in such cases. The enactment of the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law 2006 was an important first step in this regard but laws are insufficient in themselves to bring about such an approach and this Act has given rise to a very low number of cases, attributed in part to ongoing state influence. This article examines the reasons for the law's limited impact, paying particular attention to the role of the state, which appears to be changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the recent proposals for the reform of corporate rehabilitation procedures. It examines the impetus for reform, the main features of the proposals and the underlying corporate insolvency landscape in the UK. The article attempts to determine whether the proposals are sufficiently robust in terms of balancing the interests of corporate creditors and the potential for corporate rescue, and how corporate creditors might respond if they consider that their rights are unduly or unfairly relegated. It also questions the utility of the proposed reforms for companies of all sizes, and whether there are omissions in terms of realising their objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

British Home Stores collapsed led 11,000 employees to lose their jobs and faced substantial cuts to their pension with a £571 million pension deficit. In light of the BHS scandal, the UK Government has proposed a set of corporate governance reforms to strengthen the employee voice. Although the government's approach towards strengthening the employees' protection is well intentioned, we argue that without providing a derivative claim right for employees, these measures will likely have little impact in practice. Hence we suggest that to safeguard the employees' interest in the company and to enhance the overall protection of the company, in addition to the current proposed reforms, the standing for bringing derivative claims should be broadened to the employee's representative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with debate in England as to whether English law has tipped too far in favour of promoting corporate bankruptcy law’s policy concerns to the detriment of an effective secured transactions law regime, and debate in America as to whether reform to secured transactions law has tipped too far in favour of secured transaction law’s policy concerns to the detriment of an effective corporate bankruptcy regime. Through a detailed analysis of the evolutionary history of secured transactions and corporate bankruptcy law and policy in both America and England, the article analyses why each jurisdiction approaches balancing the policy objectives in a fundamentally different way, and the role which the very different institutional environments in corporate bankruptcy have played in mediating between them. It argues that this legal and institutional evolutionary history suggests relatively modest ongoing reform in both jurisdictions, closely adapted to local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]