Vol 3 (2006) - Issue 1

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A Note to Our Readership

It is with great pleasure that I introduce the first issue in the third year of International Corporate Rescue.
During the last year, practitioners have continued to shape the constantly changing international recovery and restructuring scene. What has been demonstrated is how innovative the international restructuring community has been, particularly in preserving and enhancing business and stakeholder value in a range of corporates across the globe.
2005 has seen, and 2006 will continue to see, some monumental shifts in international attitude and opinion to the issues of cross-border cooperation. New legislation has been adopted for this purpose, in particular the US Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, which introduced a new Chapter 15 into the US Bankruptcy Code, and the forthcoming Canadian C-55 Bill both of which make provision for the enactment of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency. These changes have been made to reflect not only the international nature of business but also to ensure appropriate mechanisms are incorporated into domestic legislation to assist the recovery professionals tasked with facilitating business and corporate recovery around the world with the primary purpose of maximising value for the myriad of stakeholders now on the scene.
What is also noteworthy is the number of jurisdictions which have enacted sweeping changes to their insolvency laws with the aim of ensuring that the international investment community has the confidence and certainty that it seeks. Of particular note are the reforms to the Chinese, Brazilian and Indonesian bankruptcy laws which have all been commented on in detail in International Corporate Rescue. Again we would welcome commentary from our readership as to how these reforms are being used in practice – or not, as the case may be.
The busy practitioner has also been keeping a close eye on the various cases which have assisted in the interpretation of the workings of the European Insolvency Regulation culminating in the delivery of Advocate General Jacobs’ opinion in the dispute between the Italian and Irish courts in the case of Eurofood IFSC Limited. At the time of writing the decision of the European Court of Justice has not been delivered but is very eagerly awaited.