The possible clash in powers between insolvency practitioners appointed in main and secondary insolvency proceedings were at stake in a decision of the Court of Justice of the EU in April this year. The case. In 2017, main insolvency proceedings were opened in Germany against Air Berlin Luftverkehrs KG. Where Air Berlin had an establishment in Spain, in 2020 secondary… Read More »2024-08-doc1 Spanish employees versus German Air Berlin
EIR 2000. Nearly 25 years ago, it was a breakthrough in the rather terra incognita field of international insolvency law in Europe. Indeed, there was a draft treaty that had been worked on for more than 30 years – with ups and downs. For political reasons that draft faded into the background, however, large parts of its contents could be… Read More »2024-07-doc5 Cuniberti and Leandro (eds.), A new Commentary on the European Insolvency Regulation
In April and May of this year I published two blogs on the Mercon Protocol, see ‘The US-approved Mercon protocol and the Dutch courts / Part One’ at https://bobwessels.nl/blog/2024-04-doc3-the-us-approved -mercon-protocol-and-the-dutch-courts-part-one/, followed by a second blog, see https://bobwessels.nl/blog/2024-05-doc3-the-us-approved-mercon-new -protocol-and-the-dutch-court-part-two/. The full case can be taken form these two blogs. At the moment of writing the last, Part II blog, I had… Read More »2024-07-doc4 US approved New Protocol in Mercon. Where is it? Part III
Two weeks ago I published ‘The US-approved Mercon protocol and the Dutch courts / Part One’, see https://bobwessels.nl/blog/2024-04-doc3-the-us-approved-mercon-protocol-and-the-dutch-courts-part-one/. It was the text of my column of some 4 or 5 weeks earlier in Global Restructuring Review (GRR), the world’s only daily news and analysis service on cross-border restructuring and insolvency law. See https://globalrestructuringreview.com/. As a refresher, Mercon Coffee Corporation and… Read More »2024-05-doc3 The US-approved Mercon ‘New Protocol and the Dutch Court / Part Two
Re-examining Insolvency Law and Theory. Perspectives for the 21st Century Four decades ago, looking at insolvency acts in many countries, its core was related to formal (procedural) proceedings, focussing on assets and on liquidation, managed by ‘liquidators’ (IPs) all full-blown controlled by courts. Especially during the last two decades, however, the paradigm has shifted: less formal (quasi-contractual) procedures, focussing on… Read More »2024-05-doc2 Re-Examining Insolvency Law and Theory
RESTRUE, is the name of the Report 2023 on Restructuring proceedings and bankruptcies in Poland. It was published mid April 2024 and prepared by the law firm of Filipiac Babicz. I was invited to write a few words about the Dutch WHOA legislation. My text follows here: In 2023, the evaluation of the WHOA legislation was most anticipated in the… Read More »2024-04-doc4 Evaluation of the Dutch WHOA legislation
Mercon Coffee Corporation and some of its international subsidiaries entered Chapter 11 in New York in December 2023, while its Netherlands-registered arm Mercon BV, the parent to some of the group debtors, launched WHOA proceedings in Amsterdam. With the New York court, Mercon drafted up a protocol based on the JIN Guidelines with some special provisions applicable to the case,… Read More »2024-04-doc3 The US-approved Mercon protocol and the Dutch courts / Part One
In the Netherlands, in a letter dated April 15, 2024 to the House of Representatives, Minister of Legal Protection Mr Weerwind (in outgoing /’demissionair’) addresses ‘Developments in insolvency law’. The ‘recalibration’ program (see https://bobwessels.nl/blog/2019-07-doc1-insolvency-legislative-developments-in-the-netherlands/) has ended, but for Dutch national insolvency several other themes need to be further investigated. The minister indicates that the ‘coming period’ (my impression from the… Read More »2024-04-doc2 Are the Dutch following the Model Law? Or: does the snail move?
My colleague from the University of Bari Aldo Moro, prof. Antonio Leandro, wrote a book (in Italian) under the title ‘Movement and Extinction of Commercial Credits in Conflicts of law of the EU. The ‘Rome I’ Regulation between the Internal Market and the Capital Market.’ It is a complex topic, not often addressed in depth. Reason enough to ask Antonio… Read More »2024-04-doc1 Assignment of claims, subrogation and set-off
It is with great sadness that I read the announcement below about the passing away of Eric Dirix. He was professor emeritus at the University of Leuven and a justice in the Belgian Court of Cassation (Supreme Court) for more than 20 years. His significance for private law in Belgium, but also for the Netherlands, is enormous. His publications and… Read More »2402-02-doc 3 Passing away of Professor Eric Dirix