Bankruptcy Law Commons^™

Third Time's The Charm: The Coming Impact Of The Restatement (Third) Restitution And Unjust Enrichment In Bankruptcy, C. Scott Pryor

Pepperdine Law Review

Bankruptcy courts have frequently been characterized as courts of equity. Often this characterization has accompanied unusually relaxed interpretation or application of a provision of the Bankruptcy Code. However, this understanding does not exhaust the meaning of equity in bankruptcy. Historically, equity covered a large range of topics–trusts and estates, injunction, contracts, specific performance, unjust enrichment, restitution, and disgorgement. In addition, equity was not limited to particular remedies. Equity’s remedies certainly included money damages but recognized many more. The law of equity was substantive as well as remedial; it recognized primary rights as well as secondary rights of rectification ...

When Opting Out Is The Only Option: Protecting Small Business Debtors In Bankruptcy, Ryan Malone

William & Mary Business Law Review

This Note implores states that have not already done so to opt out of the provisions of the Federal Bankruptcy Code that place explicit limits on the amount a debtor is allowed to exempt from liquidation. By doing so, states will be able to provide debtors who operate their own small business a greater degree of protection from creditors, as those states are entitled to establish their own limit on the value of the tools of a debtor’s trade the debtor may shield in bankruptcy. This Note contends that Congress has evinced an intent within the last decade to ...

Teaching Business Law In The New Economy; Strategies For Success, Kamille Wolff Dean

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Teaching Amidst Transformation: Integrating Global Perspectives On The Financial Crisis Into The Classroom, Shruti Rana

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Teaching Business Law Through An Entrepreneurial Lens, Michelle M. Harner

Journal of Business & Technology Law

The legal market has changed. Although change creates uncertainty and fear, it also can create opportunity. This essay explores the opportunity for innovation in the business law curriculum, and the role of simulation to help create more practice-aware new lawyers.

Debtor's Defense To A Deficiency Judgment Under Ucc , Gail Clifford Hutton

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dodd-Frank's Title Ii Authority: A Disorderly Liquidation Of Experience, Logic, And Due Process, Chadwick Welch

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Adjudication Under The Bankruptcy Amendments Of 1984: An Examination Of Congressional Response To The Northern Pipeline Decision, John M. Evans

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Is Bankruptcy The Answer For Troubled Cities And States?, David A. Skeel Jr.

Scholarship at Penn Law

The financial crisis that has afflicted America’s cities and states for the past decade is far from over. Under existing U.S. law, distressed municipalities can file for bankruptcy if their state permits this, as roughly half do. The states themselves do not have a bankruptcy option, however, no matter how bleak their circumstances may be. There have recently been dramatic developments in the handling of municipal distress. Several cities have filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 9, which, although adequate for sewer and water districts or a very small town, has conventionally been deemed irrelevant for real cities and ...

Bankruptcy Law As A Liquidity Provider, Kenneth M. Ayotte, David A. Skeel Jr.

Scholarship at Penn Law

Since the outset of the recent financial crisis, liquidity problems have been cited as the cause behind the bankruptcies and near bankruptcies of numerous firms, ranging from Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers in 2008 to Kodak more recently. This paper expands the prevailing normative theory of corporate bankruptcy — the Creditors’ Bargain theory — to include a role for bankruptcy as a provider of liquidity. The Creditors’ Bargain theory argues that bankruptcy law should be limited to solving problems caused by multiple, uncoordinated creditors, but focuses almost exclusively on the problem of creditor runs. We argue that two well-known problems that cause ...

Certainty Of Title: Perspectives After The Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis On The Essential Function Of Effective Recording Systems, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Recording systems for property play a pivotal, market-facilitating role for the players engaged in any transaction, the judiciary that must resolve disputes between the players, and others members of the general public by informing each about the true nature of ownership of the real property things in the world. This symposium article explores the essential character of such systems in providing certainty of title, and takes a tour through the mortgage foreclosure crisis to see where adherence to and respect for these systems’ roles broke down.

Leading up to the crisis, as securitization became vogue and the housing boom blurred ...

Walking Back From Cyprus, Lee C. Buchheit, Mitu Gulati

Faculty Scholarship

Last Friday, the European leaders trespassed on consecrated ground by putting insured depositors in Cypriot banks in harm’s way. They had other options, none of them pleasant but some less ominous than the one they settled on.

Rehabilitating Bankruptcy Reform, Kara J. Bruce

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Ring-Fencing, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

“Ring-fencing” is often touted as a regulatory solution to problems in banking, finance, public utilities, and insurance. However, both the precise meaning of ring-fencing, as well as the nature of the problems that ring-fencing regulation purports to solve, are ill defined. This article examines the functions and conceptual foundations of ring-fencing. In a regulatory context, the term can best be understood as legally deconstructing a firm in order to more optimally reallocate and reduce risk. So utilized, ring-fencing can help to protect public-benefit activities performed by private-sector firms, as well as to mitigate systemic risk and the too-big-to-fail problem inherent ...

Bankruptcy In The Czech Republic, Hungary, And Poland And Section 304 Of The United States Bankruptcy Code, Proceedings Ancillary To Foreign Bankruptcy Proceedings, Helmut Gerlach

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Series Llcs: What Happens When One Series Fails? Key Considerations And Issues, Michelle M. Harner, Jennifer Ivey-Crickenberger, Tae Kim

Faculty Scholarship

Entity choice law is constantly evolving and innovating. The series LLC form is one such example. Although the form provides governance and operational flexibility and efficiencies, the law governing the form is still developing. As such, uncertainties linger, particularly in the context of a financially distressed or insolvent series. This article explores many of the issues that arise when a master LLC or one of its series experiences financial distress and contemplates a bankruptcy filing. It also identifies strategies for parties to potentially mitigate certain of these issues in the planning stage. The article concludes by suggesting parties using the ...

Effects Of The New Bankruptcy Code On Creditors With Secured Claims In Residential Real Property, Richard Mednick

Pepperdine Law Review

The sweeping changes brought about by the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 may have a profound effect on the secured interests of lenders. The rights of a creditor against a debtor, and the procedure that he must follow vary with the chapter of the new Bankruptcy Code under which the debtor files his claim. Richard Mednick, a Judge on the Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, explains the procedures required and the interest affected by the most commonly invoked chapters of the new code. Judge Mednick strongly urges that creditors become familiar with these changes, as some new ...

The Manville Corporation Bankruptcy: An Abuse Of The Judicial Process?, Mark Kunkler

Pepperdine Law Review

Federal bankruptcy law offers a refuge to the honest debtor who is unable to pay his creditor's when his debts are due. Here, the twin aims of bankruptcy law, to give the debtor a fresh start and to provide roughly equal treatment for his! Creditors, are laudably accomplished. But what policies support the use of federal bankruptcy law when the "debtor" is in fact solvent and apparently seeks refuge only to escape liability for the products it manufactures? This comment examines the recent filing of the Manville Corporation for Chapter 11 protection under bankruptcy law with this question in ...

The Dischargeability In Bankruptcy Of Debts For Alimony And Property Settlements Arising From Divorce, John Francis Murphy

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Code And The Constitution: Fifth Amendment Limits On The Debtor's Discharge In Bankruptcy, Nicholas A. Franke

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.