Law Commons^™

Designing The Limits Of Creditworthiness. Insolvency In Antwerp Bankruptcy Legislation And Practice (16th-17th Centuries), Dave De Ruysscher

Dave De ruysscher

In 1516 and 1518, the Antwerp City Council introduced a collective system of debt recovery, which was partly derived from academic doctrine and which broke with the tradition of priority for the first seizing claimant. The new views were inserted into a legal framework that was based on the concept of publicly known insolvency. Because of the vague legal definitions in the 1582 and 1608 Antwerp law compilations, the position of pursuing creditors was strengthened. Although these rules weren't successful, they demonstrate an early intention to draw the line between criminal bankruptcy, persisting insolvency and temporary payment problems.

Making Sense Of Nation-Level Bankruptcy Filing Rates, Ronald J. Mann

Ronald Mann

No abstract provided.

Patterns Of Credit Card Use Among Low And Moderate Income Households, Ronald J. Mann

Ronald Mann

This chapter uses data from the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances for 2004 (the “SCF”) to examine the penetration of credit cards into LMI markets. The chapter has two purposes. First, I discuss the rise of the modern credit market, emphasizing the segmentation of product lines based on behavioral and financial characteristics of customer groups. Among other things, that trend involves the use of products aimed at LMI households that differ significantly from those aimed at middle-class households. Second, I describe the extent to which LMI households borrow on credit cards, the types of LMI households that borrow, …

Conflicts In Cross-Border Enforcement Of Tax Claims, Andrew Grossman

Andrew Grossman

Some recent academic studies have argued, with few provisos, for abandonment of the rule traditional in both common- and civil-law jurisdictions barring the enforcement of foreign tax claims and judgments in the absence of a specific treaty engagement to the contrary. To equate public-law debts with private debts, and to make judgments for such debts enforceable across borders in the manner of the Uniform Foreign Money-Judgments Recognition Act, without addressing the special nature of tax claims and the way in which they may arise in bankruptcy, involuntary liquidation of assets, and arise in tandem and across borders, is bound to …

Usury Law, Payday Loans, And Statutory Sleight Of Hand: An Empirical Analysis Of American Credit Pricing Limits, Christopher L. Peterson

Christopher L Peterson

In the Western intellectual tradition usury law has historically been the foremost bulwark shielding consumers from harsh credit practices. In the past, the United States commitment to usury law has been deep and consistent. However, the recent rapid growth of the “payday” loan industry belies this longstanding American tradition. In order to understand the evolution of American usury law, this paper presents a systemic empirical analysis of all fifty state usury laws in two time periods: 1965 and the present. The highest permissible price of a typical payday loan authorized under each state’s usury law was calculated. These prices were …

Collective Bargaining Agreements And Chapter 9 Bankruptcy, Ryan Preston Dahl

Ryan P Dahl

The recent cycle of automotive and aviation bankruptcies is ending. The next major restructuring cycle may come from a very different quarter. Municipalities throughout the United States will face the very real prospect of insolvency. The treatment of collective bargaining agreements will play a significant role in this process. Unaffordable collective bargaining obligations may be the efficient cause of such filings. Alternatively, rejecting such agreements may be the most effective means of restoring a municipal debtor’s financial health.

Statutory gaps, the absence of significant caselaw, and limited scholarly commentary raise serious questions as to how courts should treat collective bargaining …

The Supreme Court, The Solicitor General, And Bankruptcy: Bfp V. Resolution Trust Corporation, Ronald Mann

Ronald Mann

Using information from Justice Blackmun's files and the case, and a dataset matching Supreme Court bankruptcy decisions with information about participation by the Solicitor General, the paper argues that the SG's participation in secured creditor disputes in the mid-1990's is a big part of the explanation of this counter-textual case. The paper introduces a broader theory of bankruptcy interpretation that I call "bankruptcy skepticism," rejecting claims that bankruptcy interpretation by the Supreme Court has been literalist.

Credit Cards, Consumer Credit & Bankruptcy, Ronald Mann

Ronald Mann

Presents the empirical analysis from chapters four and five of Charging Ahead illustrating the relations among credit card use, consumer credit, and bankruptcy, using a data set of five countries (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and Japan) that include about 3/4 of the world credit card market.

Limiting Limited Liability, Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci

Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci

Limited liability may result in inefficient accident prevention, because a relevant portion of the expected harm is externalized on victims. This paper shows that under some restrictive conditions further limiting liability by means of a liability cap can improve caretaking.

An Empirical Investigation Of Liquidation Choices Of Failed High-Tech Firms, Ronald Mann

Ronald Mann

Examines a dataset of failed high-tech firms (software, telecom, and biotech) to investigate what determines which ones file for bankruptcy. The primary finding is that the easy procedures and wide acceptance of ABCs in California makes bankruptcy a less attractive alternative in California than it is elsewhere.

The Rise Of State Bankruptcy-Directed Legislation, Ronald Mann

Ronald Mann

This is the first in a series of pieces on bankruptcy interpretation, this one arguing that the preemptive effect of bankruptcy law on state commercial law should focus on state legislation that is "directed" at bankruptcy proceedings.

Self-Organizing Legal Systems: Precedent And Variation In Bankruptcy, Bernard Trujillo

Bernard Trujillo

Models of legal ordering are frequently hierarchical. These models do not explain two prominent realities: (1) variation in the content of a legal system, and (2) patterns of non-hierarchical ordering that we observe. As a supplement to hierarchical explanations of legal order, this Article, drawing from physical and social science research on complex systems, offers a self-organizing model. The self-organizing model focuses on variation in the content of legal systems and attempts to explain the relationship between that variation and patterns of ordering. The self-organizing model demonstrates that variation and ordering are not opposite categories, but rather constitute one continuous …