Law Commons^™

Florida's Troubled Phosphate Companies: Can Bankruptcy Law Be Used To Relieve Their Obligation To Reclaim The Land?, Mary Jane Angelo

UF Law Faculty Publications

The conflict that brings us here arises when the earth is disturbed and the environment in which we live is threatened. . . . On the one hand are the corporations who mine phosphate reserves in Florida—their intentions are based on the argument that an ever-shrinking agrarian base in America must have fertilizer to remain effective and productive. On the other hand are the individuals and groups who oppose that mining and their argument is based upon the contention that such mining is too destructive of a unique and very fragile ecosystem.

By the year 2000, phosphate companies will have …

Harmonizing The Policy Of The Bankruptcy Code And Article 9, Edwin E. Smith, Elizabeth Warren, James J. White

Other Publications

In a true sense bankruptcy law--at least as represented by the 1978 Code--is in conflict, not in harmony, with Article 9. To a considerable degree (perhaps more than they realize) debtors and unsecured creditors got things they wanted from Congress by the adoption of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978. It is doubtful that that Act could have been passed in any Congress before or since. In many ways, the rights of the debtor and of the unsecured creditors have been cut back since the adoption of the Bankruptcy Reform Act.

Contempt Of The Bankruptcy Court - A New Look, Laura B. Bartell

Law Faculty Research Publications

With the passage of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978, Congress worked a sweeping revision of the nation's bankruptcy laws. As part of this massive reform measure, Congress reinvented the role of the bankruptcy judge, granting the judge a host of new powers. Because these new powers were so substantial and because Congress elected to establish bankruptcy judges as Article I rather than Article III judges, the Supreme Court, in Northern Pipeline Construction Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., declared those portions of the Act delineating the powers and structure of the bankruptcy courts unconstitutional. Congress responded by passing the …

The Duties And The Powers Of The Chapter 7 Trustee In Bankruptcy In The United States And In Belgium, Chantal J. De Nauw

LLM Theses and Essays

U.S. bankruptcy law offers a wide range of protections to a variety of debtors. The possibility of liquidation, reorganization, or rehabilitation is available to corporations, partnerships, individuals, and even some government institutions in the U.S. Conversely, the accessibility to bankruptcy in Belgium is restricted. In Belgium, only a salesman, as defined in the Belgian Code of Commerce, has access to bankruptcy protection, and this access is restricted in nature only to liquidation. This thesis analyzes the differences in the bankruptcy systems of the U.S. and Belgium, paying special attention to the role of the bankruptcy trustee in Chapter 7 bankruptcy …

The Effect Of Bankruptcy On Executory Contracts In General And On Licensing Agreements Of Intellectual Property In Particular, Alexandra Baumgartner

LLM Theses and Essays

11 U.S.C. § 365(a) provides that a bankruptcy trustee, subject to the court’s approval, may assume or reject any executory contract. What section § 365 does not provide is a clear definition for the term “executory contract.” This thesis covers the different definitions of executory contracts proposed by courts and scholars and common grounds for assumption and rejection by the trustee. The author in particular analyzes how § 365 interacts with licensing agreements. If a licensor files for bankruptcy and the license agreement is rejected, the licensee’s rights to use the licensed intellectual property are in jeopardy. This situation is …

Consumer Bankruptcy Practice In Kentucky: Chapter 7 Practice, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law, Scott A. Bachert, Michael L. Baker, C.R. Chip Bowles Jr, Thomas L. Canary Jr, Sandra D. Freeburger, Hal D. Friedman, Joseph J. Golden, James D. Lyon, Andrea Fried Neichter, Cathy S. Pike, Jan M. West, Tracey N. Wise

Continuing Legal Education Materials

A handbook for Kentucky practitioners covering Chapter 7 debtors, automatic stay and abandonment, dealing with secured creditors, discharging debts, bankrupt estates, and bankruptcy ethics.

Protective Orders In The Bankruptcy Court: The Congressional Mandate Of Bankruptcy Code Section 107 And Its Constitutional Implications, Michelle M. Harner, William T. Bodoh

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Chapter 11 Case Management And Delay Reduction: An Empirical Study, Samuel Bufford

Journal Articles

Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases will drag on interminably if judges let them. The recent nine-month O.J. Simpson trial was short compared to the careers of some chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. The typical duration of chapter 11 cases can be reduced remarkably, however, through moderate judicial case management.

The data in this study show that relatively modest judicial case management can squeeze a substantial amount of delay out of chapter 11 cases within the context of the present bankruptcy law. The case management program in this study, applied to 81.2% of the chapter 11 case load, shortened by 24.1% the time …

Bankruptcy Law In European Countries Emerging From Communism: The Special Legal And Economic Challenges, Samuel Bufford

Journal Articles

Bankruptcy law is developing rapidly in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) that have recently escaped the domination of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The communist governments fell in those countries that were separate from the USSR in 1989, and those countries that were a part of the USSR gained their independence and acquired new non-communist governments in 1989 (the Baltic states) and 1991 (Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and Russia). While many other areas of law that are basic to the development of a market economy need substantial development or revision, bankruptcy law is leading the way, …

Assessing Modern Bankruptcy Law: An Example Of Justice, Veryl Victoria Miles

Scholarly Articles

The task undertaken in this article will be to consider how well modern bankruptcy law measures up to concepts of justice that have evolved from Catholic social thought. The application of Catholic social justice in the assessment of whether a law is "just" or "unjust" can be viewed as a rational progression in evaluating the quality of justice achieved under a law.

Contractual Bankruptcy Waivers: Reconciling Theory, Practice, And Law, Marshall E. Tracht

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Ladies In Red: Learning From America's First Female Bankrupts, Marie Stefanini Newman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Several years ago, the Honorable Joyce Bihary, a bankruptcy judge in Atlanta, Georgia, asked me3 why our country's first bankruptcy law specifically referred to debtors using “he” or “she” rather than a gender-neutral noun (such as “bankrupts”) or the male possessive pronoun “he.” Implicitly, she was also asking whether there were any women debtors under our early bankruptcy laws. Although I had read the Bankruptcy Act of 1800 more than once, I did not recollect its use of these gender-inclusive pronouns. Nor did I know why the Act employed them. Despite having given considerable thought to contemporary women in debt, …

Bankruptcy In The Seventh Circuit: 1995, Douglass Boshkoff

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Avoiding Judicial Wrath: The Ten Commandments For Bankruptcy Practitioners, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

This article describes the top ten duties for bankruptcy lawyers. 1. Know the purpose(s) of the Bankruptcy Code. 2. Know the facts and the law. 3. Spend time crafting your arguments. 4. Don't lie (about conflicts of interest or about controlling law). 5. Be respectful (of other lawyers, of the system, and of other participants in the system). 6. Don't indulge your client's sleazy instincts. 7. Don't escalate a conflict unnecessarily. 8. Honor your calendar. 9. Keep your client informed. 10. Don't whine.

Bankruptcy Relief From Secured Tax Liens, Veryl Victoria Miles

Scholarly Articles

This article will discuss the rules of bankruptcy law that are most relevant to the treatment of prepetition secured tax claims. It also will discuss the consequences of these rules and how they affect the various parties to the bankruptcy proceeding: the debtor, the secured tax claimant, and the unsecured creditors.

The Death Of Liability, Lynn M. Lopucki

UF Law Faculty Publications

Based on systems/strategic analysis, this paper predicts the complete failure of legal liability system. Liability is the system by which injured persons recover money damages from those who injure them. The system operates through the entry and enforcement of judgments by the courts. The paper argues that the system is vulnerable to defeat by a variety of judgment proofing techniques which can be categorized as secured debt strategies, ownership strategies, exemption strategies, and foreign haven strategies. Computerization has recently brought about dramatic reductions in the costs of pursuing these strategies, making them cost effective for more potential defendants. As use …

Discourse And Discharge: Linguistic Analysis And Abuse Of The "Exemption By Declaration" Process In Bankruptcy, Kenneth D. Ferguson

Faculty Works

In Taylor v. Freeland & Kronz, the United States Supreme Court interpreted section 522(1) of the Bankruptcy Code according to its "plain meaning" and permitted a debtor to exempt $110,000 that was ineligible for exemption under substantive exemption law. The decision of the Court was premised on the fact that there was no timely objection to the claim of exemption. Although conceding that its decision might tempt debtors to claim exemptions in property ineligible for exemption on the chance that the trustee and creditors would fail to object in time, the Court cataloged a number of other remedies, including denial …

Rights Of Subrogation In Letters Of Credit Transactions, James J. White

Articles

The past twenty years have seen more than a dozen cases, in which parties to letter of credit transactions have sought subrogation to the rights of the person they have paid or to the rights of the persons on behalf of whom, they have acted.' The most obvious case arises when the issuer of a standby letter of credit pays a beneficiary on a debt that is owed to the beneficiary by a bankrupt applicant. Having failed to take 'collateral from the applicant, the issuer seeks to be subrogated to the security interest of the beneficiary. Failing subrogation, the issuer …

Confirmation And Claims Trading, Frederick Tung

Faculty Scholarship

The buying and selling of claims against companies in financial distress is not a new phenomenon. In times of financial distress, liquidity has always commanded a profit. However, the late 1980s and early 1990s saw the first significant trading of claims under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, our relatively new and novel system of corporate reorganization. Traditionally scorned by the financial establishment, distress investment came into vogue with the "megabankruptcies" that followed in the wake of the leveraged buyout boom of the 1980s. With its prospects for huge profits, claims trading in Chapter 11 became a Wall Street staple. …