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Full-Text Articles in Law
Sales Or Plans: A Comparative Account Of The "New" Corporate Reorganization, Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Stephen J. Lubben
Sales Or Plans: A Comparative Account Of The "New" Corporate Reorganization, Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Stephen J. Lubben
Articles & Book Chapters
In this article, Professors Stephanie Ben-Ishai and Stephen Lubben explore the recent surge in popularity of “quick-sales,” essentially the pre-reorganization plan sale of an insolvent debtor’s assets. In their examination of quick sales, the authors use the recent examples of Lehman Brothers and Chrysler to illustrate the popularity and relevance of the pre-plan sales. The authors then move on to a more detailed discussion of the quick sales process in both Canada and the United States, isolating the differences and similarities between both countries, and weighing the costs and benefits of each approach. Ultimately, the authors argue that questions of …
Bankruptcy For The Poor?, Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Saul Schwartz
Bankruptcy For The Poor?, Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Saul Schwartz
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The conventional wisdom is that the poor are not heavy users of the insolvency system, because creditors are unwilling to take risks on the poor and because many of the poor are judgment-proof. However, credit is now widely available across the spectrum of income groups. In addition, poverty is often a temporary state for many Canadians; therefore, being judgment-proof is likewise temporary. Some of those who are poor at any point in time are in fact in need of bankruptcy protection. They have debts that they are unable to pay and little likelihood of being able to repay in the …
The Gendered Dimensions Of Social Insurance For The "Non-Poor" In Canada, Stephanie Ben-Ishai
The Gendered Dimensions Of Social Insurance For The "Non-Poor" In Canada, Stephanie Ben-Ishai
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article emerges from an exploration of the meanings of consumer bankruptcy in the current context of Canadian society, as well as the role consumer bankruptcy plays in shaping this context. Examining consumer bankruptcy through the lens of gender relations, the claim is made that Canadian consumer bankruptcy legislation, policies, practices, and accompanying discourses are implicated in the causation and perpetuation of the conditions of marginalization and subordination endured by women who experience long-term poverty. These women are affected not only in terms of access to the bankruptcy system, but also by the broader implications of the delivery of consumer …
The Explosive Global Growth Of Personal Insolvency And The Concomitant Birth Of The Study Of Comparative Consumer Bankruptcy: Consumer Bankruptcy In Global Perspective, By Johanna Niemi-Kiesilainen, Lain Ramsay & William C. Whitford (Eds.); Comparative Consumer Insolvency Regimes: A Canadian Perspective, By Jacob S. Ziegel, Kent Anderson
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Financial Collapse And Class Status: Who Goes Bankrupt?, Elizabeth Warren
Financial Collapse And Class Status: Who Goes Bankrupt?, Elizabeth Warren
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Every policy prescription, economic analysis, or news report about consumer bankruptcy rests on one or another unspoken image of the estimated 1.5 million families that will file in a single year. Data from the 2001 Consumer Bankruptcy Project permit a systematic analysis of the composition of those who file for personal bankruptcy, focusing on their education, occupation, and home ownership status. These attributes serve as a proxy for class identification. Based on these indicia, more than 90 per cent of the families in bankruptcy qualify as middle class. These data are a powerful reminder that whatever else might be said …
Options In Consumer Bankruptcy: An American Perspective, Jean Braucher
Options In Consumer Bankruptcy: An American Perspective, Jean Braucher
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In both the United States and Canada, a rapid increase in personal bankruptcies has led to demands for stricter laws to force more repayment by consumer debtors. Canada has already taken this step, while the United States may soon do so in response to the counterfactual claim that the problem is debtors with means using bankruptcy as "a method of financial planning." The author suggests that the real problem in both countries, however, is an increase in the ranks of the over-indebted. Bankruptcy is a symptom, signalling to creditors the need to reform themselves. The author concludes that if creditors …
Counselling Consumer Debtors Under Canada's Bankruptcy And Insolvency Act, Ruth E. Berry, Sue L. T. Mcgregor
Counselling Consumer Debtors Under Canada's Bankruptcy And Insolvency Act, Ruth E. Berry, Sue L. T. Mcgregor
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
If no attempts are made to determine the monetary and non-monetary reasons for bankruptcy or its recurrence, debtors may be more likely to choose bankruptcy, or remain in the cycle of bankruptcy. Credit counselling is one mechanism that can assist consumers in paying back debts without resorting to bankruptcy, thereby preventing repeat bankruptcies and heavy debt loads in the future. Canada passed a major milestone in 1992, becoming the first country to make financial counselling mandatory prior to the granting of an unconditional discharge from personal bankruptcy. This article describes the history of the policy analysis involved in making consumer …
Insolvency Counselling--Innovation Based On The Fourteenth Century, Carol Ann Curnock
Insolvency Counselling--Innovation Based On The Fourteenth Century, Carol Ann Curnock
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In the fourteenth century, poverty (previously viewed as a virtue) was redefined by both church and state as illegal and immoral. This view persists in Canada today. The 1992 amendments to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) included a provision that makes two counselling sessions mandatory for all persons going through bankruptcy. The author reviews The BIA Insolvency Counsellor's Qualification Course that was developed in support of this amendment, and concludes that it is not up to the task. The mandatory counselling presumes a bankrupt person's irresponsibility, addiction, and need for referral to community service agencies. However, these presumptions are …
The Overseas Dimension: What Can Canada And The United States Learn From The United Kingdom, Michael Adler
The Overseas Dimension: What Can Canada And The United States Learn From The United Kingdom, Michael Adler
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The United States and, to a slightly lesser extent, Canada have come to regard personal bankruptcy as a routine method of discharging debts, enabling the debtor to make a fresh start. By contrast, in the United Kingdom, bankruptcy is still seen as a remedy of last resort, and creditors may retain the right to enforce debts. The difference in approach is due to the fact that the United States and Canada have traditionally given priority to risk taking over security, while the United Kingdom has continued to give priority to security over risk taking. However, the British government's enthusiasm for …
Consumer Bankruptcy In Comparison: Do We Cure A Market Failure Or A Social Problem, Johanna Niemi-Kiesilainen
Consumer Bankruptcy In Comparison: Do We Cure A Market Failure Or A Social Problem, Johanna Niemi-Kiesilainen
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The Continental European and Scandinavian bankruptcy laws did not have provisions enabling the discharge of debt until quite recently. While bankruptcy law did not specifically exclude consumer debtors, in the absence of discharge, consumer bankruptcy was meaningless and rare. After the deregulation of credit markets in the 1980s, many west European countries faced a huge increase in consumer debt problems. Several countries passed consumer debt adjustment laws during the late 1980s and 1990s. Unlike the North American consumer bankruptcy laws, the European laws attach moral attributes to the access to adjustment procedures, which require a mandatory payment plan, and offer …
Consumer Bankruptcies: An Australian Perspective, Rosalind Mason
Consumer Bankruptcies: An Australian Perspective, Rosalind Mason
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Over the past three decades, Australia has experienced a significant increase in the number of consumer bankruptcies. Until the early 1970s, the number of business and consumer bankruptcies was approximately equal, whereas in 1997 to 1998, for every business-related bankruptcy, there were approximately four consumer bankruptcies. This article gives a concise overview of insolvency laws in Australia, in particular the administrations applicable to individual debtors. Next, it briefly describes current Australian scholarship on consumer bankruptcy, before outlining pertinent bankruptcy and consumer credit regulation. Suggestions to decrease consumer bankruptcy numbers include extension of the "cooling-off period" for those intending to petition …
The Dark Side Of Student Loans: Debt Burden, Default, And Bankruptcy, Saul Schwartz
The Dark Side Of Student Loans: Debt Burden, Default, And Bankruptcy, Saul Schwartz
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article addresses three hypotheses: (1) only a minority of Canadian student loan borrowers experience severe difficulty in repaying their student loans; (2) those who default on their student loans do so largely because they cannot pay, rather than because they do not want to pay; and (3) for Canadians who are filing for bankruptcy and who have student loans among their debts, bankruptcy is a last resort, and their economic situation is more difficult than that of the average person seeking bankruptcy protection. A review of the literature strongly supports the first two hypotheses; a new analysis of a …
The Philosophy And Design Of Contemporary Consumer Bankruptcy Systems: A Canada-United States Comparison, Jacob S. Ziegel
The Philosophy And Design Of Contemporary Consumer Bankruptcy Systems: A Canada-United States Comparison, Jacob S. Ziegel
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The rapid increase in the number of consumer bankruptcies in Canada and the United States over the past fifteen years has again focused attention on the philosophy and design of modern insolvency systems, and on the similarities and differences in the approaches adopted in Canada and the United States. In this article, the author points out that the single most important difference is that the United States has historically subscribed to the debtor's right to a "fresh start" after surrendering the debtor's non-exempt property, whereas Canadian law never has, and does not now, confer an absolute right of discharge. Although …
Introduction To The Symposium On Consumer Bankruptcies, Jacob S. Ziegel
Introduction To The Symposium On Consumer Bankruptcies, Jacob S. Ziegel
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The purpose of this Symposium is to make available to a larger readership a selection of the papers and comments that were presented at the Conference on the Contemporary Challenges of Consumer Bankruptcies in a Comparative Context held at the Faculty of Law,University of Toronto, 21-22 August 1998.
Philosophy And Design Of Modern Fresh Start Policies: The Evolution Of Canada's Legislative Policy, John D. Honsberger
Philosophy And Design Of Modern Fresh Start Policies: The Evolution Of Canada's Legislative Policy, John D. Honsberger
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The fresh start concept-the restoration of a bankrupt to his or her former debt-free status-originated in the United States. While lip service is paid to it in Canada, the author's review of the English origins and subsequent evolution of Canadian bankruptcy legislation indicates that a strong commitment to the fresh start policy has never been the Canadian philosophy. Rehabilitation of the debtor is not a matter of great concern in Canada. Indeed, the Canadian legislative policy has always been restrictive of the rights of debtors. With the passage of amendments to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) in 1992 and …
The Changing Politics Of American Bankruptcy Reform, Elizabeth Warren
The Changing Politics Of American Bankruptcy Reform, Elizabeth Warren
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The political atmosphere in which changes to the American bankruptcy laws occur has shifted since the adoption of the 1978 amendments to the United States Bankruptcy Code. Bankruptcy professionals, who once effectively controlled much of the legislative debate, have lost ground to creditors, who have become much more powerful in influencing bankruptcy legislation. The result has been the politicization of the debate and the setting of the stage for a series of amendments that have rhetorical appeal, but that do not reflect the underlying factual reality of the bankruptcy system.
Holding The High Ground: The Position Of Secured Creditors In Consumer Bankruptcies And Proposals, Tamara M. Buckwold
Holding The High Ground: The Position Of Secured Creditors In Consumer Bankruptcies And Proposals, Tamara M. Buckwold
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article examines the position of secured creditors in the event of a consumer debtor's bankruptcy or the filing of a consumer proposal, as determined by the federal and provincial laws of Canada. Secured creditors in Canada are in a remarkably powerful position relative to other claimants in bankruptcy and to their counterparts in the United States. Their rights of realization against the collateral are essentially unaffected by the initiation of either a consumer bankruptcy or proposal. Moreover, recent judicial developments appear to further enhance secured creditors' rights of enforcement, both against the in personam payment obligation and against the …
Secured Creditors And Consumer Bankruptcy In The United States, William C. Whitford
Secured Creditors And Consumer Bankruptcy In The United States, William C. Whitford
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article first summarizes the many restrictions that the American consumer bankruptcy system imposes on the enforcement of the contractual rights of secured creditors. The restrictions include the ability, in Chapter 13 proceedings particularly, of the debtor to "strip the lien" of the undersecured creditor, releasing the collateral from the lien upon payment, over time, of only the value of the collateral when it is less than the full amount owing. The article then summarizes many changes in the rights of secured creditors currently being proposed and debated in Congress. The author concludes with his own proposals that would enhance …
Consumer Bankruptcies: A New Zealand Perspective, Paul Heath
Consumer Bankruptcies: A New Zealand Perspective, Paul Heath
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In this article, the author considers the need for reform of New Zealand bankruptcy law to reflect recent socioeconomic developments in New Zealand. The author addresses several consumer bankruptcy issues, and considers them in the context of a number of competing public interest factors, such as the purpose of insolvency law, the role of the state in insolvency law, and the necessary balance to be struck between competing macroeconomic and microeconomic factors. The author suggests varying solutions-some educational, and some legal.