Bankruptcy Law Commons^™

Creditor Equality In Transnational Bankruptcies: The United States Position, Ulrich Huber

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In addition to giving a fresh start to the debtor, a primary goal of bankruptcy law (at least of liquidation bankruptcy) is to distribute equally the debtor's assets to his creditors. Although the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 and its 1984 Amendments (collectively "the Code") provide many ways of achieving this goal in domestic bankruptcies, these methods often prove to be of little help when a debtor's assets are located in more than one country.

Equality of creditors regardless of their origin, however, is considered essential for the development of international trade. International trade has grown substantially, if not explosively, …