Vol 7 (2010) - Issue 3

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A First Step in Shaping Rules for Cooperation in International Insolvency Cases

Introduction
In April 2010 the authors published a set of Global Principles for Cooperation in International Insolvency Cases. These Principles reflect a non-binding statement, drafted in a manner to be used both in civil-law as well as common-law jurisdictions, and aim to cover all jurisdictions in the world. To a large extent these Global Principles for Cooperation in International Insolvency Cases ('Global Principles') build further on the American Law Institute's Principles of Cooperation among the member-states of the North American Free Trade Association (the 'ALI NAFTA Principles'). These Principles have evolved from the American Law Institute’s Transnational Insolvency Project, conducted between 1995 and 2000, for which the Reporter was Professor Jay L. Westbrook. The objective of that Project was to provide a non-statutory basis for cooperation in international insolvency cases involving two or more of the NAFTA states of the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The ALI NAFTA Principles were published as a separate volume in the four volume text of the Transnational Insolvency Project (2003). In their work for the Global Principles project the authors are co-reporters, having been appointed by the American Law Institute and the International Insolvency Institute.

Global Principles: structure and contents

The Global Principles for Cooperation in International Insolvency Cases cover mainly four areas. After an introduction, Section II provides a list of terms and definitions.
As is explained in the Report, in recent times many states, regional public institutions, international non-governmental organisations, and practitioners’ associations have produced many laws, regulations, principles, guidelines and statements of best practices, all aiming for the better coordination of insolvency measures or proceedings concerning economic enterprises which have operations, assets, activities, debtors or creditors in more than one state. The resulting complexity is compounded by a bewildering variety of technical terms and expressions used in the various texts. Section II aims to promote the development of a uniform global legal terminology in matters relating to insolvency and therefore to assist insolvency practitioners, courts and legislators in their efforts of improving the components to smoothen cross-border communication and coordination.