Insolvency Introduction 2022
Insolvency Introduction 2022
FACULTY OF LAW
INTRODUCTION
1. COURSE OBJECTIVE
In the Caribbean, the law has generally kept abreast of the procedures to
achieve these objectives, which have become common in many other
parts of the world. Many countries have undergone reform of their
insolvency laws, as societies have recognized the dramatic social and
economic repercussions on the breakdown of companies.
We will look first at the history and philosophy of insolvency law. All law
reform must be rooted in a clear understanding of the policy which the
law maker (and the society) wishes to follow. Secondly we will examine
the basis of insolvency problems: the creation of debt, and explore how
trust and contract law influences the availability of assets for
distribution to the creditor. We will then look at the management of
corporate insolvency through the creditor remedies of receivership and
winding up. This will include an examination of the role of directors, and
the avoidance of transactions which entered into by the company which
may be improper, the recovery of misapplied assets.
Finally we will look at the concept of corporate rescue. The idea that a
failing company should not be destroyed (liquidation) but instead be
allowed to recover is not new. In the United Kingdom the administration
process has been available from 1986. Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the
United Kingdom has an even longer history. In the last ten years
Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica have enacted new insolvency
legislation based on the Canadian model.
Statutes:
Books:
*Goode, Principles of Corporate Insolvency Law, (Sweet and Maxwell)
2005
Fletcher: The Law of Insolvency (Sweet and Maxwell)
Lightman and Moss: The Law of Receivers and Administrators of
Companies, Sweet and Maxwell, 3rd Ed.
Lingard: Corporate Rescues and Receiverships (Butterworths)
*Finch V.: Corporate Insolvency Law, Perspectives and Principles,
Cambridge University Press 2002
Goode R, Legal Problems of Credit and Security, Sweet and Maxwell, 2003
Burgess, The Law of Corporate Receivers and Receiver Managers
Committee reports:
United Kingdom: Report of the Insolvency Law Review Committee (The
Cork Report) (Cmnd. 8558, 1982)
Canada: Report on the Canadian Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy
and Insolvency (the Colter Report) 1986
Other readings:
USA: Jackson: Logic and Limits of Bankruptcy (Harvard University Press)
1986