Prerequisites: Bankruptcy or Corporate Restructuring or equivalent work experience

Exam Type: No Exam

Since 1978, U.S. Chapter 11 has served as the world’s dominant corporate restructuring system — not only for American corporations but also for large companies in Europe, Asia, and Latin America that have filed for bankruptcy in the United States despite having little or no connection to the country. However, in the twenty-first century, the United States faces genuine competition for the first time. England’s Part 26A restructuring plan, introduced in 2020, has emerged as a credible global rival to Chapter 11, and the European Union, Singapore, the Netherlands, and other jurisdictions have enacted new insolvency laws with important advantages over the American system — including lower costs, faster proceedings, and, in some cases, the ability to accomplish transactions that U.S. law would not permit. As a result, even publicly traded American companies have begun restructuring abroad. Much of this is driven by U.S. law firms, which increasingly dominate corporate bankruptcy practice throughout the world and are learning to use the insolvency systems of other countries to achieve results for their clients that Chapter 11 cannot deliver — including, at times, circumventing recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

In this seminar, we will read primary sources — court opinions, restructuring plans, legislative materials, and deal documents — related to the new competition between national insolvency systems, with a special focus on the rapidly developing caselaw in England, and additional attention to Singapore and the Netherlands. We will examine how this competition is unfolding, how judges and legislatures are responding to one another across borders, and what these developments mean for the future of restructuring practice and the rights of creditors worldwide.