Subjects:

Insolvency Law

Contents:

Part
1. The Balance of Power in the Corporate Credit Network. 1: Meta-bargaining over Property Rights. 2: Professional Innovation and the Recursivity of Law. 3: The Structure of Influence in Bankruptcy Law-making. Part
2. Reconstituting Property Rights. Introduction. 4: Weakening the Strong: Banks and Secured Lenders (with J Scott Parrott). 5: Restraining the State and Utilities. 6: Enabling Managers. 7: Empowering the Weak: The Forgotten Class. Part
3. Reconstituing Jurisdictional Rights. Introduction. 8: Privatization and Nationalization of Bankruptcy Administration. 9: Jurisdictional Conflicts in the Market. 10: Jurisdictional Struggles within the State. Part
4. Conclusion. 11: Professions in the Institutionalization of Business Rescue

Corporate bankruptcy is a defining characteristic of the market economy. It encapsulates the fundamental conflicts between capital and labour, owners and managers, debtors and creditors, the state and the market. Yet, with one or two notable exceptions, the political and social dynamics of bankruptcy law and practice have been overlooked by serious socio-legal scholars. This book aims to remedy that neglect. Adopting an approach that compares English and American law, the authors identify the underlying political forces that established corporate bankruptcy law on both sides of the Atlantic. The book demonstrates how, by a recursive loop of professional self-interest, corporate insolvency regulation is the creation of the lawyers who interpret and administer it.