Oxford University Press Rescuing Companies in England and Germany

Product Description This book examines the circumstances under which a company needs restructuring, and for which companies that would be possible given the nature of the corporation and the economic viability. It discusses the criteria for judging whether a reorganization has been a success. Bork considers the legal mechanisms involved in restructuring including the extent to which the law provides the rules for a moratorium and the rights creditors may exercise over the debtor's assets. It also tackles the legal processes and how a reorganization can be commenced. The book includes analysis of the role of management and the partners or shareholders and the extent to which either legal system assigns the decision-making powers to the right persons. It considers how each regime deals with the assets involved and whether there are rules to reverse payments made during the crisis and the possibility of a set-off claim. Other aspects considered include special rules for terminating or modifying disadvantageous contracts including contracts of employment, and costs of restructuring procedures under given legal conditions. Providing a thorough consideration of the extent to which English and German company law (including the proposed changes to German law) enhances or limits the prospects of businesses seeking to reorganize, this work offers a valuable reference source for practitioners advising companies on where to base their restructuring and gives scholars further research material concerning the remaining issues in English and German restructuring law. Review This scholarly work is a comparative study of the insolvency and restructuring regimes in England and Germany. ― Chris Laughton (Partner, Mercer & Hole), Recovery This work is a timely and unique addition to the increasing field of international and comparative insolvency law and will prove to be a valuable addition to the shelves of insolvency academics and practitioners alike. Its subject matter is of far more than academic interest, as the uncertain economic conditions currently besetting Europe, and beyond, clearly demonstrate. The current global impetus towards the facilitation of corporate rescue, and especially in relation to very large, perhaps multinational corporations, may well accelerate and this work offers a distinctive and highly insightful account of this phenomenon in two of the largest economies in Europe. It is skilfully written and extremely informative and, for anyone with an insolvency law connection, an essential purchase. ― Dr Sandra Frisby About the Author Prof. Dr. Reinhard Bork studied law at the University of Münster/Westf. Since 1990 he has been Professor of Law at the University of Hamburg, where he is Director of the Seminar for Civil Procedural Law. He was Dean of the Law Faculty in 1993/1994, Vice Dean from 2005 to 2010 and was the Robert S. Campbell Visiting Fellow at Magdalen College Oxford in 2010/2011. He has served as a judge at the Upper State Court (Court of Appeal) in Hamburg in the Commercial Law Division with jurisdiction including Patents and Intellectual Property Rights (1992-1996) and he has published extensively on Civil and Civil Procedural Law (including Arbitration), Insolvency Law, Commercial Law, and Media Law.