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Scary Stories And The Limited Liability Polluter In Chapter 11 Polluter In Chapter 11, Anne M. Lawton, Lynda J. Oswald
Scary Stories And The Limited Liability Polluter In Chapter 11 Polluter In Chapter 11, Anne M. Lawton, Lynda J. Oswald
Washington and Lee Law Review
Legal commentators, policy-makers, and the media argue that the current structures of environmental, bankruptcy, and corporate law permit firms to strategically use bankruptcy to inappropriately displace hundreds of millions of dollars of environmental liability onto taxpayers. However, the proposed solution to this supposed problem-reforming bankruptcy, environmental, and/or corporate law-is draconian, and may cause dramatic and unintended consequences. Moreover, these demands for reform are occurring in a complete absence of data about whether and to what extent inappropriate strategic use of bankruptcy in this manner actually occurs. We conducted an empirical analysis of Chapter 11 bankruptcies filed in 2004 and closed …
A Normative Theory Of Bankruptcy Law: Bankruptcy As (Is) Civil Procedure, Charles W. Mooney, Jr.
A Normative Theory Of Bankruptcy Law: Bankruptcy As (Is) Civil Procedure, Charles W. Mooney, Jr.
Washington and Lee Law Review
This paper develops a normative theory of bankruptcy law called "procedure theory." The core of procedure theory is that bankruptcy law exists in order to maximize the recoveries for holders of legal entitlements ("rightsholders") in respect of a financially distressed debtor. Bankruptcy law in the United States is a branch of civil procedure and the jurisdiction of federal courts. Procedure theory holds that it generally is wrong in bankruptcy to redistribute a debtor's wealth away from its rightsholders to benefit third-party interests, such as at-will employees and the general community. It also generally is wrong to rearrange priorities in bankruptcy …