Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Banking and Finance Law (89)
- Contracts (85)
- Estates and Trusts (82)
- Constitutional Law (80)
- Property Law and Real Estate (75)
-
- Business Organizations Law (69)
- Torts (66)
- Evidence (63)
- Insurance Law (63)
- Legislation (54)
- Securities Law (47)
- State and Local Government Law (44)
- Criminal Law (41)
- Commercial Law (40)
- Jurisdiction (38)
- Family Law (36)
- Courts (33)
- Transportation Law (32)
- Labor and Employment Law (31)
- Agency (28)
- Tax Law (24)
- Election Law (21)
- Law and Economics (21)
- Litigation (21)
- Secured Transactions (17)
- Land Use Law (16)
- Supreme Court of the United States (15)
- Comparative and Foreign Law (14)
- Keyword
-
- Creditors (74)
- Bankruptcy (64)
- Insolvency (57)
- Debtors (45)
- Bankruptcy Act (36)
-
- Law reform (33)
- Chapter 11 (21)
- Liquidation (20)
- Fraud (19)
- Reorganization (19)
- Debt (17)
- Corporations (15)
- Bankruptcy Code (14)
- Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 (12)
- Chandler Act (11)
- Debts (11)
- Liens (11)
- United States Supreme Court (11)
- Universalism (11)
- Creditor (10)
- Mortgages (10)
- Obligations (10)
- Uniform Commercial Code (10)
- Assets (9)
- Congress (9)
- Consumers (9)
- Credit (9)
- Empirical studies (9)
- Security interests (9)
- Chapter 13 (8)
- Publication Year
- Publication
-
- Michigan Law Review (351)
- Articles (52)
- University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform (20)
- Law & Economics Working Papers (8)
- Michigan Journal of International Law (8)
-
- Book Chapters (7)
- Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review (5)
- Appellate Briefs (4)
- Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009 (3)
- Reviews (3)
- Fellow, Adjunct, Lecturer, and Research Scholar Works (2)
- Michigan Journal of Race and Law (2)
- Books (1)
- Event Materials (1)
- Michigan Law Review Online (1)
- Other Publications (1)
- Publication Type
Articles 31 - 60 of 469
Full-Text Articles in Bankruptcy Law
Rethinking Criminal Contempt, John A.E. Pottow, Jason S. Levin
Rethinking Criminal Contempt, John A.E. Pottow, Jason S. Levin
Articles
It is of course too early to tell whether we are in a new era of bankruptcy judge (dis)respectability. Only time will tell. But this Article performs a specific case study, on one discrete area of bankruptcy court authority, based upon a particular assumption in that regard. The assumption is this: certain high-salience judicial events-here, the recent Supreme Court bankruptcy judge decisions, coupled with earlier constitutional precedents involving the limits of Article III-can trigger overreaction and hysteria. Lower courts may read these Supreme Court decisions as calling into question the permissibility of certain bankruptcy court practices under the Constitution, and …
Rethinking Criminal Contempt In The Bankruptcy Courts, John A. E. Pottow, Jason S. Levin
Rethinking Criminal Contempt In The Bankruptcy Courts, John A. E. Pottow, Jason S. Levin
Law & Economics Working Papers
A surprising number of courts believe that bankruptcy judges lack authority to impose criminal contempt sanctions. We attempt to rectify this misunderstanding with a march through the historical treatment of contempt-like powers in bankruptcy, the painful statutory history of the 1978 Bankruptcy Code (including the exciting history of likely repealed 28 U.S.C. § 1481), and the various apposite rules of procedure. (Fans of the All Writs Act will delight in its inclusion.) But the principal service we offer to the bankruptcy community is dismantling the ubiquitous and persistent belief that there is some form of constitutional infirmity with "mere" bankruptcy …
What Bankruptcy Law Can And Cannot Do For Puerto Rico, John A. E. Pottow
What Bankruptcy Law Can And Cannot Do For Puerto Rico, John A. E. Pottow
Articles
This article is based on a February 2016 keynote address given at the University of Puerto Rico Law Review Symposium “Public Debt and the Future of Puerto Rico.” Thus, much of it remains written in the first person, and so the reader may imagine the joy of being in the audience. (Citations and footnotes have been inserted before publication ‒ sidebars that no reasonable person would ever have inflicted upon a live audience, even one interested in bankruptcy law. Rhetorical accuracy thus yields to scholarly pedantics.) The analysis explains how bankruptcy law not only can but will be required to …
Two Cheers For Universalism: Nortel's Nifty Novelty, John A. E. Pottow
Two Cheers For Universalism: Nortel's Nifty Novelty, John A. E. Pottow
Book Chapters
Individuals in the cross-border bankruptcy community hiding under rocks may not have heard about the monumental decisions in the co-trials in the Canadian-United States Nortel bankruptcy proceedings, In re Nortel Networks, Inc and Re Nortel Networks Corp. The decisions are thoughtful, innovative, practical, and important. They warrant a detailed case comment or two in their own right. This brief article, however, will not provide such worthy treatment. Those hungering for in-depth reports of the cases and their holdings may stop reading now and devote their labours elsewhere. What this article will be is an appreciation of Nortel, explaining …
Beyond Carve-Outs And Toward Reliance: A Normative Framework For Cross-Border Insolvency Choice Of Law, John A. E. Pottow
Beyond Carve-Outs And Toward Reliance: A Normative Framework For Cross-Border Insolvency Choice Of Law, John A. E. Pottow
Law & Economics Working Papers
Choice of law in cross-border insolvency is gaining increased attention, not just by lowly academics but by policymakers who actually matter. I argue it is time to bring some normative guidance to the burgeoning reform efforts. At the highest level of theoretical purity, universalism seems to have (rightly) captured the biggest following. But it has been scaled back by what I call “second-order” considerations of pragmatics to its lesser, modified form. I take that retrenchment as necessary and note how it has been deployed through a carveout-based regime of subject-specific exceptions from lex fori concursus. Given that lay of the …
Sovereign Defaults Before International Courts And Tribunals, John A. E. Pottow, Emily Himes Iversen
Sovereign Defaults Before International Courts And Tribunals, John A. E. Pottow, Emily Himes Iversen
Law & Economics Working Papers
This book review probes Michael Waibel’s new book, Sovereign Defaults Before International Courts and Tribunals. Waibel's project is ambitious, exploring international attempts to address sovereign defaults over the past century and a half. Through painstaking and comprehensive historical analysis, Waibel shows how we've been here before -- a sober reminder for those thinking Argentina is simply part of a new fad in financial default. With the UN now turning its attention to sovereign debt issues, this study is especially timely. Although somewhat disappointing in the lightness of its normative content, the book should nevertheless prove helpful to those considering the …
Bank Of America, N. A. V. Caulkett, Et Al.: Brief Of Bankruptcy Law Professors Robert M. Lawless, Bruce A. Markell, And John A. E. Pottow As Amici Curiae In Support Of Affirmance, John A. E. Pottow
Appellate Briefs
Amici curiae are three leading scholars of bankruptcy, commercial, and business law who have been teaching, researching, and writing about bankruptcy law for decades. They seek to provide the Court with a fuller description of the legal rules, history, and policies affected by this case.
Review Of Sovereign Defaults Before International Courts And Tribunals, John A. E. Pottow, Emily Iversen
Review Of Sovereign Defaults Before International Courts And Tribunals, John A. E. Pottow, Emily Iversen
Reviews
This book review probes Michael Waibel’s new book, Sovereign Defaults Before International Courts and Tribunals. Waibel's project is ambitious, exploring international attempts to address sovereign defaults over the past century and a half. Through painstaking and comprehensive historical analysis, Waibel shows how we've been here before -- a sober reminder for those thinking Argentina is simply part of a new fad in financial default. With the UN now turning its attention to sovereign debt issues, this study is especially timely. Although somewhat disappointing in the lightness of its normative content, the book should nevertheless prove helpful to those considering the …
Implementing Symmetric Treatment Of Financial Contracts In Bankruptcy And Bank Resolution, E. J. Janger, John A.E. Pottow
Implementing Symmetric Treatment Of Financial Contracts In Bankruptcy And Bank Resolution, E. J. Janger, John A.E. Pottow
Articles
Financial contracts come in many forms and serve many functions in both the financial system and the broader economy. Repos secured by U.S. Treasury securities act as money substitutes and can play an important role as part of the money supply, while similarly structured repos, secured by more volatile collateral, may be used as speculative devices or hedges. Swaps can be used to insure against various types of market risk, from interest rates to oil prices, or they can operate as vehicles for highly leveraged investments. The parties to these instruments are sometimes major financial institutions and, other times, ordinary …
A Public Pensions Bailout: Economics And Law, Terrance O'Reilly
A Public Pensions Bailout: Economics And Law, Terrance O'Reilly
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In several states, public pension plans are at risk of insolvency within a decade. These risks are significant, and the solutions currently contemplated are likely to fall short of what is necessary to contain the problem. If public pension plans do become insolvent, it seems likely the federal government will bail them out. This Article proposes that the federal government prepare for the prospect of federal financial support of public pension plans by instituting an optional regulatory regime for public pensions. If a state elects not to participate, its public pension plans would be ineligible for federal financial support. In …
Beyond Carve-Outs And Toward Reliance: A Normative Framework For Cross-Border Insolvency Choice Of Law, John A. E. Pottow
Beyond Carve-Outs And Toward Reliance: A Normative Framework For Cross-Border Insolvency Choice Of Law, John A. E. Pottow
Articles
The title of this Article purports to develop a normative framework for cross-border insolvency choice of law. That can be a task of varying scope, so at the outset any pretense of ambition for a wholly new choice of law model should be dispelled. Indeed, at the most generalized level, bankruptcy choice of law theory has already been fully ventilated in the well-rehearsed universalism versus territorialism debates. And it has been settled. The universalists, at least as a normative matter, appear to have won: choice of law, as it is increasingly accepted, should be determined by the debtor's center of …
Long-Term Financial Burden Of Breast Cancer: Experiences Of A Diverse Cohort Of Survivors Identified Through Population-Based Registries, Reshma Jagsi, John A.E. Pottow, Kent A. Griffith, Cathy Bradley, Ann S. Hamilton, John Graff Rutgers University, Steven J. Katz, Sarah T. Hawley
Long-Term Financial Burden Of Breast Cancer: Experiences Of A Diverse Cohort Of Survivors Identified Through Population-Based Registries, Reshma Jagsi, John A.E. Pottow, Kent A. Griffith, Cathy Bradley, Ann S. Hamilton, John Graff Rutgers University, Steven J. Katz, Sarah T. Hawley
Articles
Purpose: To evaluate the financial experiences of a racially and ethnically diverse cohort of long-term breast cancer survivors (17% African American, 40% Latina) identified through population-based registries. Methods: Longitudinal study of women diagnosed with nonmetastatic breast cancer in 2005 to 2007 and reported to the SEER registries of metropolitan Los Angeles and Detroit. We surveyed 3,133 women approximately 9 months after diagnosis and 4 years later. Multivariable models evaluated correlates of self-reported decline in financial status attributed to breast cancer and of experiencing at least one type of privation (economically motivated treatment nonadherence and broader hardships related to medical expenses). …
House Swaps: A Strategic Bankruptcy Solution To The Foreclosure Crisis, Lynn M. Lopucki
House Swaps: A Strategic Bankruptcy Solution To The Foreclosure Crisis, Lynn M. Lopucki
Michigan Law Review
Since the price peak in 2006, home values have fallen more than 30 percent, leaving millions of Americans with negative equity in their homes. Until the Supreme Court’s 1993 decision in Nobelman v. American Savings Bank, the bankruptcy system would have provided many such homeowners with a remedy. They could have filed bankruptcy, discharged the negative equity, committed to pay the mortgage holders the full values of their homes, and retained those homes. In Nobelman, however, the Court misinterpreted reasonably clear statutory language and invented legislative history to resolve a three-to-one split of circuits in favor of the minority view …
Detroit's Real Challenge, John A. E. Pottow
Detroit's Real Challenge, John A. E. Pottow
Articles
When Detroit became the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy, it was a bad thing—unless you have the unique world-view of a bankruptcy lawyer, in which case it was marvelous news, worthy of celebration.
A Capital Market, Corporate Law Approach To Creditor Conduct, Mark J. Roe, Frederico Cenzi Venezze
A Capital Market, Corporate Law Approach To Creditor Conduct, Mark J. Roe, Frederico Cenzi Venezze
Michigan Law Review
The problem of creditor conduct in a distressed firm—-for which policymakers ought to have the distressed firm’s economically sensible repositioning as a central goal—-has vexed courts for decades. Because courts have not come to coherent, stable doctrine to regulate creditor behavior and because they do not focus on building doctrinal structures that would facilitate the sensible repositioning of the distressed firm, social costs arise and those costs may be substantial. One can easily see why developing a good rule here has been hard to achieve: A rule that facilitates creditor intervention in the debtor’s operations beyond the creditor’s ordinary collection …
Securities Class Actions And Bankrupt Companies, James J. Park
Securities Class Actions And Bankrupt Companies, James J. Park
Michigan Law Review
Securities class actions are often criticized as wasteful strike suits that target temporary fluctuations in the stock prices of otherwise healthy companies. The securities class actions brought by investors of Enron and WorldCom, companies that fell into bankruptcy in the wake of fraud, resulted in the recovery of billions of dollars in permanent shareholder losses and provide a powerful counterexample to this critique. An issuer's bankruptcy may affect how judges and parties perceive securities class actions and their merits, yet little is known about the subset of cases where the company is bankrupt. This is the first extensive empirical study …
The Law Of Ponzi Payouts, Spencer A. Winters
The Law Of Ponzi Payouts, Spencer A. Winters
Michigan Law Review
When a Ponzi scheme collapses, there will typically be net winners and net losers. The bankruptcy trustee will often seek to force the net winners - those who received more money back from the Ponzi scheme than they invested - to disgorge their profits. Courts diverge on whether they should compel disgorgement in this instance. This Note argues that under prevailing fraudulent transfer law, net winners in a Ponzi scheme need not disgorge their profits. This is because the investor's dollar-for-dollar discharge of a preexisting debt constitutes the transfer of value in exchange for the payout. There are two exceptions …
Undocumented Debtors, Chrystin Ondersma
Undocumented Debtors, Chrystin Ondersma
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Undocumented immigrants in financial distress are barred from seeking many forms of assistance. Bankruptcy is one tool that is, in theory, available to undocumented debtors because legal status is not a prerequisite to bankruptcy relief. This Article explores undocumented debtors' interactions with the bankruptcy system. Undocumented debtors face both formal and informal barriers to bankruptcy filing, including fear of deportation, misinformation, and the legal requirement that the debtor produce financial records. It is both possible and desirable to ease many of these barriers. Bankruptcy relief facilitates the rehabilitation of debtors in financial distress, contributes to the economic well-being of the …
Considerations For Private Equity Firms When Utilizing Chapter 11 New Value Deals, Alexandra Wilde
Considerations For Private Equity Firms When Utilizing Chapter 11 New Value Deals, Alexandra Wilde
Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review
The new value exception to the Chapter 11 absolute priority rule provides a narrow avenue for equity holders to retain an equity interest in a reorganized company over the objections of senior creditors and interest holders. With the increasing number of Chapter 11 reorganization filings by private equity owned companies, private equity firms may be interested in exploring ways to retain their equity ownership in the debtor company. This Note explores the unique implications a private equity firm may encounter when attempting to utilize the new value exception as a last resort to maintain ownership in a debtor company. Part …
A New Approach To Section 363(F)3, Evan F. Rosen
A New Approach To Section 363(F)3, Evan F. Rosen
Michigan Law Review
Section 363(f) of the Bankruptcy Code provides five circumstances in which a debtor may be permitted to sell property free of all claims and interests, outside of the ordinary course of business, and prior to plan confirmation. One of those five circumstances is contained in § 363(f)(3), which permits such a sale where the "interest is a lien and the price at which such property is to be sold is greater than the aggregate value of all liens on such property." While it is far from certain whether § 363(f)(3) requires a price "greater than the aggregate [face value] of …
The Rise In Elder Bankruptcy Filings And The Failure Of U.S. Bankruptcy Law, John A. E. Pottow
The Rise In Elder Bankruptcy Filings And The Failure Of U.S. Bankruptcy Law, John A. E. Pottow
Articles
Recent empirical legal scholarship on the consumer bankruptcy system has uncovered a marked rise in the proportion of elder Americans filing for relief under the Bankruptcy Code. But these studies have not probed the reasons behind that rise, an omission this Article seeks to address. Professor John Pottow and colleagues recently assembled the new dataset of the Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP), the largest national sample of consumer debtors in this country, which he uses to explore the sources of elder bankruptcy. The findings are both striking and ominous. While multiple factors, such as health problems and medical debts, contribute to …
A New Role For Secondary Proceedings In International Bankruptcies, John A. E. Pottow
A New Role For Secondary Proceedings In International Bankruptcies, John A. E. Pottow
Articles
Secondary proceedings-the ugly stepsisters to main proceedings-get short shrift in international bankruptcy scholarship. This article seeks to remedy that deficiency. First, it describes what it argues are the traditional conceptions-both stated and implicit-of secondary proceedings in international bankruptcies. Second, it offers a revised way of thinking about secondary proceedings, proposing to restrict their scope through the use of "synthetic" hearings. Third, it addresses some problems with the proposed new role of secondary proceedings and sketches a possible solution involving the creation of an international priorities registry.
Financial Literacy Or Financial Castigation?, John A. E. Pottow
Financial Literacy Or Financial Castigation?, John A. E. Pottow
Articles
This year, the Canadians- through their government-convened Task Force on Financial Literacy - have proudly produced, "Canadians and their Money: Building a Brighter Financial Future." Armed with 30 recommendations, its most dramatic innovation is to recommend the creation of a Financial Literacy Leader. I have been asked to provide an American perspective on this report specifically and the broader agenda of "financial literacy" more generally as a consumer welfare intervention. Let me start by acknowledging the critiques of the Canadian Task Force. For example, my Canadian colleague, Saul Schwartz, has already drafted a compelling analysis of the political economy behind …
Race, Educational Loans & Bankruptcy, Abbye Atkinson
Race, Educational Loans & Bankruptcy, Abbye Atkinson
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Article reports new data from the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project revealing that college graduates and specifically White graduates are less likely to file for bankruptcy than their counterparts without a college degree. Although these observations suggest that a college degree helps graduates to weather the setbacks that sometimes lead to financial hardship as measured by bankruptcy, they also indicate that a college degree may not help everyone equally. African American college graduates are equally likely to file for bankruptcy as African Americans without a college degree. Thus, a college education may not confer the same protective benefit against financial …
The Rise In Elder Bankruptcy Filings And Failure Of U.S. Bankruptcy Law, John A. E. Pottow
The Rise In Elder Bankruptcy Filings And Failure Of U.S. Bankruptcy Law, John A. E. Pottow
Law & Economics Working Papers
Recent empirical legal scholarship on the consumer bankruptcy system has uncovered a marked rise in the proportion of elder Americans filing for relief under the Bankruptcy Code. But these studies have not probed the reasons behind that rise, an omission this Article seeks to address. Professor John Pottow and colleagues recently assembled the new dataset of the Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP), the largest national sample of consumer debtors in this country, which he uses to explore the sources of elder bankruptcy. The findings are both striking and ominous. While multiple factors, such as health problems and medical debts, contribute to …
Assessing The Chrysler Bankruptcy, Mark J. Roe, David Skeel
Assessing The Chrysler Bankruptcy, Mark J. Roe, David Skeel
Michigan Law Review
Chrysler entered and exited bankruptcy in forty-two days, making it one of the fastest major industrial bankruptcies in memory. It entered as a company widely thought to be ripe for liquidation if left on its own, obtained massive funding from the United States Treasury, and exited via a pseudo-sale of its main assets to a new government-funded entity. The unevenness of the compensation to prior creditors raised concerns in capital markets, which we evaluate here. We conclude that the Chrysler bankruptcy cannot be understood as complying with good bankruptcy practice, that it resurrected discredited practices long thought interred in the …
Chrysler's Bankruptcy: Money Laundering On A Grand Scale, James J. White
Chrysler's Bankruptcy: Money Laundering On A Grand Scale, James J. White
Articles
The interesting issue in Chrysler is not the lawyers’ manipulation of the law; it is the politicians’ use of the bankruptcy to launder money. Had the President simply announced that the federal government would give $4 billion to the UAW, the public, even the public in the UAW’s home state of Michigan, would have been up in arms. By laundering the money through the Chapter 11 process, the administration disguised the payment and avoided the outrage.
Government Involvement In Chrysler Bankruptcy: The Least-Worst Alternative?, John A. E. Pottow
Government Involvement In Chrysler Bankruptcy: The Least-Worst Alternative?, John A. E. Pottow
Articles
As usual, my colleague Jim White has hit many nails on many heads. Also as usual, however, I’m going to be a pain and part ways with him a bit. First, was Chrysler’s bankruptcy “suspicious” in its use of section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code? You bet. Leaving aside the proliferation of 363 sales to swallow Chapter 11 as we once knew it, Chrysler was out in left field. Not only was it a “sale” of everything meaningful in the company, it was to a seller—Fiat—that put in no money. (To be fair, Fiat agreed to contribute technological know-how on …
Interpreting Data: A Reply To Professor Pardo, Robert M. Lawless, Angela K. Littwin, Katherine M. Porter, John A. E. Pottow, Deborah K. Thorne, Elizabeth Warren
Interpreting Data: A Reply To Professor Pardo, Robert M. Lawless, Angela K. Littwin, Katherine M. Porter, John A. E. Pottow, Deborah K. Thorne, Elizabeth Warren
Articles
Professor Pardo has published a pointed critique to our Report, raising three major complaints. First, he claims that we make two predicating assumptions in our study that are flawed. Second, he contends that we misunderstand the means test and fail to appreciate with sufficient "nuance" its "operative effect." Third, he maintains that our Report suffers from methodological problems. We can address the two impugned assumptions quickly. The first one - that BAPCPA's means test is the sole causal agent driving 800,000 putative filers from the bankruptcy courts - is not one we make. The second - regarding the income profiles …
The Success Of Chapter 11: A Challenge To The Critics, Elizabeth Warren, Jay Lawrence Westbrook
The Success Of Chapter 11: A Challenge To The Critics, Elizabeth Warren, Jay Lawrence Westbrook
Michigan Law Review
Although Chapter 11 has served as a model for bankruptcy reform around the world, the conventional wisdom has been that it is characterized by a relatively low success rate and endless delay. The data from large samples of Chapter 11 cases filed in 1994 and 2002 demonstrate that this characterization is wrong. Nearly all troubled companies choose Chapter 11 over Chapter 7 liquidation, which means that the system serves a critical screening function to eliminate hopeless cases relatively quickly. Almost half the unsuccessful cases were jettisoned within six months and almost eighty percent were gone within a year The cases …