Rethinking the Rhetoric and Strategies of European Insolvency Law Harmonisation Post-COVID-19

Our paper is an investigation by the board of the Younger Academics Network of Insolvency Law (YANIL) into the insolvency law responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in six European legal systems (Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom). We uncover the inadequacy of the EU’s harmonisation language, and the limits of top-down harmonisation strategies in insolvency and restructuring law. We conclude that, to further our understanding of harmonisation of European insolvency laws, there is a need to promote the formulation of a wider-encompassing definition of ‘legal harmonisation’.

Keywords: insolvency, COVID-19, restructuring, harmonisation, comparative law

JEL Classification: G3, K2

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Ghio, Emilie and Boon, Gert-Jan and Ehmke, David Christoph and Gant, Jennifer and Langkjaer, Line and Vaccari, Eugenio, Rethinking the Rhetoric and Strategies of European Insolvency Law Harmonisation Post-COVID-19 (October 25, 2021). (2021) Oxford Law Blog , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3949461 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3949461