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On Bankruptcy’S Promethean Gap: Building Enslaving Capacity Into The Antebellum Administrative State, Rafael I. Pardo
On Bankruptcy’S Promethean Gap: Building Enslaving Capacity Into The Antebellum Administrative State, Rafael I. Pardo
Scholarship@WashULaw
As the United States contends with the economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, federal bankruptcy law is one tool that can be used to resolve the financial distress suffered by individuals and businesses. When implementing this remedy, the question arises whether the law’s application should be viewed as limited to addressing private debt matters, without regard for the public interest. This Article answers the question by looking to modern U.S. bankruptcy law’s first forebear, the 1841 Bankruptcy Act, which Congress enacted in response to the depressed economic conditions following the Panic of 1837. That legislation created a judicially administered …