BiblioVault - Books about Bankruptcy & Insolvency

Bankrupt in America

A History of Debtors, Their Creditors, and the Law in the Twentieth Century

Mary Eschelbach Hansen and Bradley A. Hansen

University of Chicago Press, 2020

In 2005, more than two million Americans—six out of every 1,000 people—filed for bankruptcy. Though personal bankruptcy rates have since stabilized, bankruptcy remains an important tool for the relief of financially distressed households. In Bankrupt in America, Mary and Brad Hansen offer a vital perspective on the history of bankruptcy in America, beginning with the first lasting federal bankruptcy law enacted in 1898.

Interweaving careful legal history and rigorous economic analysis, Bankrupt in America is the first work to trace how bankruptcy was transformed from an intermittently used constitutional provision, to an indispensable tool for business, to a central element of the social safety net for ordinary Americans. To do this, the authors track federal bankruptcy law, as well as related state and federal laws, examining the interaction between changes in the laws and changes in how people in each state used the bankruptcy law. In this thorough investigation, Hansen and Hansen reach novel conclusions about the causes and consequences of bankruptcy, adding nuance to the discussion of the relationship between bankruptcy rates and economic performance.

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Bankruptcy's Universal Pragmatist

Festschrift in Honor of Jay Westbrook

Christoph G. Paulus and John A. E. Pottow, Editors

Michigan Publishing Services, 2021

A Who’s Who of international scholars of bankruptcy law have come together to compile a Festschrift honoring the work of Jay Lawrence Westbrook, one of the most prominent professors of bankruptcy law. Jay is not just the father—perhaps grandfather—of modern cross-border insolvency theory, but a pioneer (along with his co-authors Teresa A. Sullivan and Elizabeth Warren) of empirical research in commercial law. The volume collects the papers presented at “JayFest,” the 2018 celebration of Jay’s work in Austin co-sponsored by the University of Texas Law School, the Texas Law Review, and the world’s premier bankruptcy organization, the International Insolvency Institute.

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International Bankruptcy

The Challenge of Insolvency in a Global Economy

Jodie Adams Kirshner

University of Chicago Press, 2018

With the growth of international business and the rise of companies with subsidiaries around the world, the question of where a company should file bankruptcy proceedings has become increasingly complicated. Today, most businesses are likely to have international trading partners, or to operate and hold assets in more than one country. To execute a corporate restructuring or liquidation under several different insolvency regimes at once is an enormous and expensive challenge.
With International Bankruptcy, Jodie Adams Kirshner explores the issues involved in determining which courts should have jurisdiction and which laws should apply in addressing problems within. Kirshner brings together theory with the discussion of specific cases and legal developments to explore this developing area of law. Looking at the key issues that arise in cross-border proceedings, International Bankruptcy offers a guide to this legal environment. In addition, she explores how globalization has encouraged the creation of new legal practices that bypass national legal systems, such as the European Insolvency Framework and the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. The traditional comparative law framework misses the nuances of these dynamics. Ultimately, Kirshner draws both positive and negative lessons about regulatory coordination in the hope of finding cleaner and more productive paths to wind down or rehabilitate failing international companies.

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