Law Commons^™

Conflicts In Cross-Border Enforcement Of Tax Claims, Andrew Grossman

Andrew Grossman

Some recent academic studies have argued, with few provisos, for abandonment of the rule traditional in both common- and civil-law jurisdictions barring the enforcement of foreign tax claims and judgments in the absence of a specific treaty engagement to the contrary. To equate public-law debts with private debts, and to make judgments for such debts enforceable across borders in the manner of the Uniform Foreign Money-Judgments Recognition Act, without addressing the special nature of tax claims and the way in which they may arise in bankruptcy, involuntary liquidation of assets, and arise in tandem and across borders, is bound to …

Insolvency Principles And The Odious Debt Doctrine: The Missing Link In The Debate, A. Mechele Dickerson

Law and Contemporary Problems

Politicians as well as many members of the international human-rights community, view the odious debt doctrine as fundamentally unfair that the Iraqi people may be saddled with the debts Saddam Hussein's brutal regime incurred. Furthermore, some in the human-rights community generally argue that rich (creditor) countries have a moral duty or obligation to protect citizens of poor (debtor) countries and that richer nations should forgive the debts of poorer nations to help reduce existing inequalities between developed and developing countries. Here, Dickerson evaluates the doctrine of odious debts using the insolvency framework found in the United States Bankruptcy Code.

The Duty To Creditors In Near-Insolvent Firms: Eliminating The "Near-Insolvency" Distinction, Cory D. Kandestin

Vanderbilt Law Review

'Even at our best, we are only out for ourselves." It is human nature to act in one's own interest. Though ethicists and psychologists may disagree about the extent to which self-interest is a motivating factor behind human behavior, most accept that it plays some role. Assuming that human behavior is at least in part a function of self-interest, laws should be expected to reflect that behavior. Many already do: the law of agency imposes a duty on the agent to act with obedience towards his principal, and the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit a lawyer from representing …

Managers’ Fiduciary Duties In Financially Distressed Corporations: Chaos In Delaware (And Elsewhere), Rutheford B. Campbell Jr., Christopher W. Frost

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The inherent conflict between creditors and shareholders has long occupied courts and commentators interested in corporate governance. Creditors holding fixed claims to the corporation's assets generally prefer corporate decision making that minimizes the risk of firm failure. Shareholders, in contrast, have a greater appetite for risk, because, as residual owners, they reap the rewards of firm success while sharing the risk of loss with creditors.

Traditionally, this conflict is mediated by a governance structure that imposes a fiduciary duty on the corporation's managers-its officers and directors-to maximize the value of the shareholders' interests in the firm. In this traditional view, …

I Diritti Delle Parti Alla Cessazione Del Contratto Di Agenzia Nel Diritto Tedesco, Valerio Sangiovanni

Valerio Sangiovanni

No abstract provided.

Directors' Duties In Failing Firms, Kelli A. Alces, Larry E. Ribstein

Scholarly Publications

Despite many cases with seemingly contrary dicta, corporate directors of failing firms do not have special duties to creditors. This follows from the nature of fiduciary duties and the business judgment rule. Under the business judgment rule, the directors have broad discretion to decide what to do and in whose interests to act. There is some authority for a limited creditor right to sue on behalf of the corporation to enforce this duty. However, any such right does not make the duty one owed to creditors. The creditors individually may sue the corporation for breach of specific contractual, tort, and …

The Myth (And Realities) Of Forum Shopping In Transnational Insolvency, John A. E. Pottow

Articles

A decade ago, in 1996, the landscape of transnational insolvencies was vastly different from today. The UNCITRAL Model Law had not been finished, the efforts at the E.U. Insolvency Treaty were jeopardized by mad cows, and no one had heard of Chapter 15. Now, all three universalist projects are up and running, putting universalism in a comfortable state of ascendancy. The paradigm has not been without critics, however, the most persistent and eloquent of which has been Professor Lynn LoPucki. LoPucki has periodically attacked universalism on a number of grounds. These grievances include a sovereigntist complaint of universalism's insensitivity to …

Gap Filling In The Zone Of Insolvency, Frederick Tung

Faculty Scholarship

This paper was prepared for a symposium - Twilight in the Zone of Insolvency: Fiduciary Duty and the Creditors of Troubled Companies - at the University of Maryland School of Law.

Attacks on shareholder primacy have come from numerous quarters, arguing for expansion of the class of beneficiaries of directors' fiduciary duties. Regarding duties to creditors - the focus of this symposium - a long line of cases has recognized that once a firm is insolvent, creditors should be the primary beneficiaries of directors' fiduciary duties. Then in 1991, Chancellor Allen's famous discussion in Credit Lyonnais identified a special vicinity …

Judicial Assistance In Cross-Border Insolvency At Common Law, Adrian Walters

Adrian J Walters

No abstract provided.