Comparative & Int'l Perspectives

Creative Destruction in Small Business Bankruptcy

08/29/23

Two distantly related items caught my eye this morning, as both reinforce the need for "creative destruction" as a response to all-too-common small business failure.

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New Year, New Personal Bankruptcy Law--in Kazakhstan

01/03/23

The list of countries with new personal insolvency laws continues to grow. Bloomberg noted today that the President of Kazakhstan had signed a new law setting out several procedures for relieving the debts of non-entrepreneur individuals (sole proprietors remain relegated to the existing law on rehabilitation and bankruptcy).

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Ukraine versus Russia, English Supreme Court

04/14/22

Bailiffs for Gunboats is the title I have given to a short paper to be published in a Festschrift for the famous German scholar, Christoph Paulus, lately head of the law faculty at Humboldt, Berlin. It discusses a case remarkably overlooked despite its unusual facts, its major legal and political implications, and its role as a prelude to the horrors of the current war in Ukraine.

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Contract ambiguity: paying versus still owing a debt

12/01/21

I've been meaning for some time to tell this brain-candy story involving an amazing ambiguity in a Chinese debt-related contract. Now that my career-first research semester is drawing to a close and the holiday break is upon us, I thought now's the time to tell it.

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Personal Insolvency in Asia and Currency Comparison

09/08/21

While Shenzhen has gotten all the good press since its March launch of the first personal bankruptcy regime in Mainland China, a number of other Asian regimes have also been on the move.

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Human Rights Watch on Imprisonment for Debt

03/21/21

What happens in countries where no consumer bankruptcy regime exists as a safety valve to assuage the worst consequences of unpayable debt? A report this week from Human Rights Watch ("We Lost Everything": Debt Imprisonment in Jordan) offers one heart-wrenching answer. The following excerpt captures the essence:

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Greensill "Secured" Lending

03/17/21

Slips readers will be interested in Matt Levine's column today, which takes a deep dive into the recently failed Greensill's lending against “prospective receivables,” which is kind of like lending against my prospective estate in Scotland. Both look a lot like unsecured lending.

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Personal Bankruptcy Arrives in China in March 2021

10/26/20

The process I noted in an earlier post has come to fruition, and the Shenzhen special economic zone will introduce the first personal bankruptcy law in China, effective March 1, 2021.

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New Greek Bankruptcy Code

10/08/20

Responding to an EU Directive and what was likely already a long-simmering plan to revise a not entirely satisfactory patchwork of constantly shifting bankruptcy and insolvency laws, the Greek government recently released a draft of a new Code for

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What's in a word: New immigration public charge rule and "bankruptcy"?

02/28/20

I was surprised to find that the explosive new US immigration "public charge" rule has some interesting bankruptcy angles.

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