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Defending The Current State Of Section 363 Sales, Jared A. Wilkerson Oct 2012

Defending The Current State Of Section 363 Sales, Jared A. Wilkerson

W&M Law Student Publications

Notwithstanding the priority-based controversy following the Chrysler and GM § 363(b) sales, value is the central dispute dominating the asset sale debate. Given the mounting data purporting to show that sales harm junior creditors by producing low value, I confront two issues in this article. First, I address the depth and breadth of the low value phenomenon for junior creditors, concluding that(a) although sales appear to cut deeply into creditor recoveries, causation has yet to be shown; and (b) sales have not, contrary to the predictions of some scholars, overtaken reorganization. Second, using qualitative and quantitative analysis, I challenge four …


Credit Markets, Exemptions, And Households With Nothing To Exempt, Richard M. Hynes Jan 2006

Credit Markets, Exemptions, And Households With Nothing To Exempt, Richard M. Hynes

Faculty Publications

American bankruptcy law has offered a "fresh start" in every state for over one hundred years. As a result, econometric studies of consumer bankruptcy often focus on one of the few aspects of the law that has varied significantly across time and across states: exemptions. Professors Gropp, Scholz and White published the first article to test the effect of exemptions on credit markets. Consistent with theory, they found that residents of states with larger exemptions pay higher interest rates than those in states with lower exemptions andface an increased probability that they will be denied credit. These effects were most …


Bankruptcy And State Collections: The Case Of The Missing Garnishments, Richard M. Hynes Jan 2006

Bankruptcy And State Collections: The Case Of The Missing Garnishments, Richard M. Hynes

Faculty Publications

Recent bankruptcy reforms were spurred in part by a bankruptcy filing rate that has more than doubled in the last ten years and that has risen by approximately six hundred percent over the last generation. Some attribute this surge in filings to Americans' greater willingness to avoid debts by declaring bankruptcy. Most academics, however, argue that more Americans are forced into bankruptcy by crushing debt burdens and aggressive collections techniques. Surprisingly, the literature has largely ignored data on the use of these collections techniques. This Article examines the use of one of the most important collections tools, garnishment, in two …


Caught In The Trap: Pricing Racial Housing Preferences, A. Mechele Dickerson May 2005

Caught In The Trap: Pricing Racial Housing Preferences, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Bankruptcy And Mortgage Lending: The Homeowner Dilemma, A. Mechele Dickerson Oct 2004

Bankruptcy And Mortgage Lending: The Homeowner Dilemma, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Race Matters In Bankruptcy, A. Mechele Dickerson Oct 2004

Race Matters In Bankruptcy, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Why (Consumer) Bankruptcy?, Richard M. Hynes Oct 2004

Why (Consumer) Bankruptcy?, Richard M. Hynes

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


A Politically Viable Approach To Sovereign Debt Restructuring, A. Mechele Dickerson May 2004

A Politically Viable Approach To Sovereign Debt Restructuring, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

The failure to enact a statutory system to restructure sovereign debt suggests that the international community is still unwilling to adopt a unified global response to insolvency issues. Since nations refused to enact uniform legislation to facilitate more orderly business insolvencies within a sovereign, it is not surprising that recent attempts to create uniform legislation that addresses the insolvency of sovereigns themselves have been unsuccessful. While a comprehensive statutory approach can predictably and efficiently restructure all of a sovereign's debts, the failed experience with uniform cross-border insolvency legislation suggests that sovereigns will not accept an inflexible statutory scheme that contains …


The Many Faces Of Chapter 11: A Reply To Professor Baird, A. Mechele Dickerson Apr 2004

The Many Faces Of Chapter 11: A Reply To Professor Baird, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Non-Procrustean Bankruptcy, Richard M. Hynes Jan 2004

Non-Procrustean Bankruptcy, Richard M. Hynes

Faculty Publications

Many advocates of bankruptcy reform bristle at aspects of the bankruptcy system they find distributively "unfair." These scholars point to the instances in which wealthy debtors have been able to retain million-dollar homes and luxury items, examples which at first glance might offend any reasonable sense of decency or fairness. Yet if bankruptcy provides insurance otherwise unavailable because of market failures, then an ideal bankruptcy system would embrace much of this inequality in post-bankruptcy standards of living. The wealthy generally choose private contracts that ensure their high standards of living. Though others envy these benefits, they do not wish to …


The Political Economy Of Property Exemption Laws, Richard M. Hynes, Anup Malani, Eric A. Posner Jan 2004

The Political Economy Of Property Exemption Laws, Richard M. Hynes, Anup Malani, Eric A. Posner

Faculty Publications

Exemption laws enable people who default on loans to protect certain assets from liquidation. Every state has its own set of exemption laws, and they vary widely. The 1978 federal bankruptcy law contains a set of national exemptions, which debtors in bankruptcy are permitted to use instead of their state's exemptions unless the state has formally "opted out" of the federal system. We contend that states' decisions to opt out shed light on their exemption levels. We find that states are more likely to opt out if their state exemption is lower than the federal exemption and that states are …


Overoptimism And Overborrowing, Richard M. Hynes Jan 2004

Overoptimism And Overborrowing, Richard M. Hynes

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Approving Employee Retention And Severance Programs Judicial Discretion Run Amuck, A. Mechele Dickerson Apr 2003

Approving Employee Retention And Severance Programs Judicial Discretion Run Amuck, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Behavioral Approach To Analyzing Corporate Failures, A. Mechele Dickerson Apr 2003

Behavioral Approach To Analyzing Corporate Failures, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

Recent corporate failures indicate that existing laws fail to give boards of directors adequate incentives to acknowledge that some financially troubled firms simply cannot be salvaged. Relying primarily on insights from law and behavioral science literature, this Article notes that directors have a natural tendency to underestimate risks and overestimate their ability to save an insolvent or near insolvent firm. This Article urges the imposition of a duty to file a timely bankruptcy petition because such a duty will encourage directors to consider the interests of all the firms' constituents, including workers, creditors, and the local community, when making decisions …


Optimal Bankruptcy In A Non-Optimal World, Richard M. Hynes Jan 2002

Optimal Bankruptcy In A Non-Optimal World, Richard M. Hynes

Faculty Publications

Consumer bankruptcy insures individuals against misfortune. Like other forms of insurance, bankruptcy reduces an individual's incentive to guard against misfortune and provides her with an incentive to overstate her need for relief. The "first-best," or optimal, bankruptcy system, like the first-best tax or public assistance system, solves these moral hazards without any loss of efficiency. In bankruptcy, this first-best approach would deny relief to debtors responsible for their own distress and reduce the deserving debtors' obligations to an amount commensurate with their ability to pay. While the Bankruptcy Code tries (in part) to follow this first-best approach, such a utopian …


Bankruptcy Reform: Does The End Justify The Means?, A. Mechele Dickerson Apr 2001

Bankruptcy Reform: Does The End Justify The Means?, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


America's Uneasy Relationship With The Working Poor, A. Mechele Dickerson Nov 1999

America's Uneasy Relationship With The Working Poor, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Can Shame, Guilt, Or Stigma Be Taught? Why Credit-Focused Debtor Education May Not Work, A. Mechele Dickerson Jun 1999

Can Shame, Guilt, Or Stigma Be Taught? Why Credit-Focused Debtor Education May Not Work, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


From Jeans To Genes: The Evolving Nature Of Property Of The Estate, A. Mechele Dickerson Apr 1999

From Jeans To Genes: The Evolving Nature Of Property Of The Estate, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


If You Don't Have Anything Good To Say..., Peter A. Alces Jan 1999

If You Don't Have Anything Good To Say..., Peter A. Alces

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Family Values And The Bankruptcy Code: A Proposal To Eliminate Bankruptcy Benefits Awarded On The Basis Of Marital Status, A. Mechele Dickerson Jan 1998

Family Values And The Bankruptcy Code: A Proposal To Eliminate Bankruptcy Benefits Awarded On The Basis Of Marital Status, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


To Love, Honor, And (Oh) Pay: Should Spouses Be Forced To Pay Each Other's Debts?, A. Mechele Dickerson Jan 1998

To Love, Honor, And (Oh) Pay: Should Spouses Be Forced To Pay Each Other's Debts?, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Lifestyles Of The Not-So-Rich Or Famous: The Role Of Choice And Sacrifice In Bankruptcy, A. Mechele Dickerson Oct 1997

Lifestyles Of The Not-So-Rich Or Famous: The Role Of Choice And Sacrifice In Bankruptcy, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Clearer Conceptions Of Insider Preferences, Peter A. Alces Jan 1993

Clearer Conceptions Of Insider Preferences, Peter A. Alces

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Rethinking Professor Westbrook's Two Thoughts About Insider Preferences, Peter A. Alces Jan 1993

Rethinking Professor Westbrook's Two Thoughts About Insider Preferences, Peter A. Alces

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Premerger Review And Bankruptcy: The Meaning Of Section 363(B)(2), Robert B. Greenbaum, Alan J. Meese Oct 1991

Premerger Review And Bankruptcy: The Meaning Of Section 363(B)(2), Robert B. Greenbaum, Alan J. Meese

Popular Media

No abstract provided.


Editor's Notes, Peter A. Alces Jan 1991

Editor's Notes, Peter A. Alces

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Collective Bargaining In Chapter 11 And Beyond, B. Glenn George Jan 1985

Collective Bargaining In Chapter 11 And Beyond, B. Glenn George

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Unexpired Leases In Bankruptcy: Rights Of The Affected Mortgagee, Peter A. Alces Oct 1983

Unexpired Leases In Bankruptcy: Rights Of The Affected Mortgagee, Peter A. Alces

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


The Efficacy Of Guaranty Contracts In Sophisticated Commercial Transactions, Peter A. Alces Jan 1983

The Efficacy Of Guaranty Contracts In Sophisticated Commercial Transactions, Peter A. Alces

Faculty Publications

Even though contracts of guaranty are not subject to uniform standards of interpretation throughout the states, both case law and statutory development have tended to evidence a strong sympathy for the guarantor. In spite of this trend, Professor Alces suggests that creditors' counsel can, through careful drafting, do much to assure the enforceability of the guaranty contract. A scrupulously structured guaranty contract, one that anticipates possible defenses to liability in explicit terms, may well be upheld, even in cases in which guarantors occupied weak negotiating positions vis-a-vis creditors. Moreover, the attack on the guaranty as a fraudulent conveyance under section …