European Insolvency Law: Development, Harmonisation, Application and Reform

Abstract

This article overall explores the legislative changes in corporate insolvency law that occurred over the past number of years, especially in relation to the concept of corporate rescue. Specifically, this paper tackles the theoretical and practical issues of the current corporate rescue laws at European level. The key objective is to consider the implications of the variations that can be found in the different Member States for the harmonisation of insolvency laws movement happening at Community level.

The article evaluates the adequacy of the existing rules at European levels and analyses the current changes occurring within the Community. It especially looks at the European insolvency legal framework, notably the 2000 European Insolvency Regulation and the scope of the reform currently occurring at European level.

This paper will show the difficulty, albeit the necessity of reform in the field of cross-border insolvencies in the European Union. It will be seen that because the EU legislative process is based on negotiations between states, the EU legislator was not apt to decide on substantive insolvency rules.

Keywords: Insolvency Law, Harmonisation, Forum-Shopping, Rescue, European

JEL Classification: K22