Law Commons^™

Scarlet-Lettered Bankruptcy: A Public Benefit Proposal For Mass Tort Villains, Samir D. Parikh

Northwestern University Law Review

Financially distressed companies often seek refuge in federal bankruptcy court to auction valuable assets and pay creditor claims. Mass tort defendants—including 3M, Johnson & Johnson, and Purdue Pharma—introduce new complexities to customary Chapter 11 dynamics. Many mass tort defendants engage in malfeasance that inflicts widespread harm. These debtors fuel public scorn and earn a scarlet letter that can destroy value for an otherwise profitable business. Scarlet-lettered companies could file for bankruptcy and quickly sell their assets to fund victims’ settlement trusts. This Article argues, however, that this traditional resolution option would eviscerate victim recoveries. Harsh public scrutiny has diminished the …

An Innovative Framework: Evaluating The New German Business Stabilization And Restructuring Law (Starug), Andreas Rauch

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

This comment examines the restructuring framework, restrukturierungsgesetz (“StaRUG”), and argues that this new law represents an effective—albeit radical—departure from Germany’s previous, conservative insolvency regime. Passed in response to a 2019 EU Directive aimed at modernizing restructuring law Union-wide, and integrated into the German legal system against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, StaRUG and its ancillary reforms in other areas of German law create a restructuring proceeding that places a premium on a debtor’s continued business operations. Thus, in a striking shift from the traditional German approach to business distress, which strongly emphasized creditor rights, the new StaRUG focuses on …

Clarity About Comity: How Courts Have Attempted Greater Guidance For Chapter 15 Litigants, Sabrina Lieberman

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Abstract

This note explores the development of courts’ refusal to extend comity to foreign representatives who have filed a proceeding under chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Congress adopted chapter 15 as part of a comprehensive 2005 bankruptcy reform. It allows foreign entities to receive protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. In most cases, foreign representatives who file a chapter 15 proceeding are involved with ancillary insolvency proceedings outside the United States. There is often a question of how or if a U.S. court overseeing the chapter 15 proceeding will defer to a judgment or process within the foreign …