In May this year (see leidenlawblog.nl) I reported that Sir Geoffrey Vos, Chancellor of the High Court of England and Wales, had approved the adoption of the JIN Guidelines, as part of the court’s Chancery Guide. The Guidelines of the Judicial Insolvency Network (JIN) aim to encourage communication and cooperation amongst national courts by pulling together the best practices in cross-border restructuring and insolvency.
In addition to the courts of some eight countries mentioned in that blog, recently courts for Brazil, Argentina and the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Australia have adopted these JIN cross-border cooperation guidelines. In May, in England the adoption led to an unfortunate reference to an earlier version of the American Law Institute/International Insolvency Institute Guidelines Applicable to Court-to-Court Communications in Cross-Border Cases.
Recently, this has led to an amendment of the Chancery Guide (see www.judiciary.gov.uk), which in the relevant paragraphs now state: “Court-to-Court communications in cross-border insolvency cases 25.30 There is increasing international recognition that communication between courts in different jurisdictions may be of assistance in the efficient conduct of cross-border insolvency cases. Improved communication may lead to a co-ordinated approach between the courts and maximisation of benefit for all stakeholders of financially troubled enterprises. 25.31 There are, at present, three principal sets of guidelines for court-to-court communications which might be adopted, with appropriate modifications, in such cases. These are the American Law Institute/International Insolvency Institute Guidelines Applicable to Court-to-Court Communications in Cross-Border Cases; the EU Cross-Border Insolvency Court-to-Court Communications Guidelines; and The Judicial Insolvency Network Guidelines for Communication and Cooperation between Courts in Cross-Border Insolvency Matters.
The ALI/III Guidelines are available at www.iiiglobal.org.
The EU Guidelines are available at www.tri-leiden.eu.
The JIN Guidelines (with minor amendments for use in England and Wales) are available at www.gov.uk/government.
25.32 In a cross-border insolvency case, the insolvency practitioner involved, together with any other interested parties, should consider, at an early stage in the proceedings, whether the Court should be invited to adopt one of these sets of guidelines for use in the proceedings, with such modifications as the circumstances of the case may require.”