Skip to content
Welcome / Blog Archive / Book Review

Book Review

2026-10-doc3 EU Insolvency Law and Third Countries (Book review; Part II)

Continuation of book review; for the first part, see Bob Wessels’ blog 2026-10-02doc2. Recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings The dual treatment (EIR – UNCITRAL) continues with the category of the recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings, featuring excellent contributions by Kodek (pp. 399–406), Pieckenbrock (pp. 407–417), and Silvestri (effects on pending lawsuits, pp. 417–444), preceded by a comprehensive general report by… Read More »2026-10-doc3 EU Insolvency Law and Third Countries (Book review; Part II)

2026-10-doc2 EU Insolvency Law and Third Countries (Book review; Part I)

The topic ‘EU Insolvency Law and Third Countries’ is as challenging as it is complex. The book bearing this title was published shortly after the summer of 2026. This long-awaited publication is the outcome of a research project that began in 2021 and was publicly launched in the autumn of 2023 as a joint initiative coordinated by Professors Alexander Trunk… Read More »2026-10-doc2 EU Insolvency Law and Third Countries (Book review; Part I)

2026-03-doc2 Insolvent entrepreneurs in the EU, a right to a fresh start?

The Preventive Restructuring Directive 2019/1023 is best known for its system (in Articles 4-19) for preventive restructuring frameworks (‘restructuring plans’) and the way the directive’s rules have been implemented in the Member States. Other topics are equally important, such as early warning systems and measures to increase the efficiency of proceedings, including improving the professional quality of judges and practitioners,… Read More »2026-03-doc2 Insolvent entrepreneurs in the EU, a right to a fresh start?

2025-01-doc1 Nederlands IPR onder handbereik

Het Nederlandse internationale privaatrecht (IPR) onderging diverse, soms structurele veranderingen. Centraal staat Boek 10 BW, begin deze eeuw nog een legen huls, maar sinds 2012 het wettelijke huis voor het grootste deel van het Nederlandse conflictenrecht. Daarvoor was haar inhoud verspreid over tal van afzonderlijke wetten. Daarnaast is de EU een enorme bron van conflictenrecht geworden. Met regelmaat worden voorstellen… Read More »2025-01-doc1 Nederlands IPR onder handbereik

2025-10-doc2 European Contract Law – Michael Stürner’s 2025 book

Nr VIII in the ‘Ius Communitaties’ series is Michael Stürner’s 2025 volume ‘European Contract Law.’ It offers a comprehensive exposition of European contract law. With xlvii + 683 pages, Stürner presents a European perspective on contracts, not only as a translation of his German book of 2021 on the same subject, but stressing and displaying the non-German, European perspectives. Nevertheless,… Read More »2025-10-doc2 European Contract Law – Michael Stürner’s 2025 book

2025-08-doc5 Jurisdiction in EU Cross-Border Insolvency Law

The book, discussed here, is titled ‘Jurisdiction in EU Cross-Border Insolvency Law’. It has been written by Antonio Leandro, a professor at the University of Bari Aldo Moro in Italy and one of my colleagues of the European Commission’s Group of Experts on Restructuring and Insolvency Law. First a quote: ‘“Jurisdiction” is one of those words which mean different things… Read More »2025-08-doc5 Jurisdiction in EU Cross-Border Insolvency Law

2025-08-doc4 Hague Judgments Convention 2019 and preventive restructuring frameworks

Since 1 July 2025 the Hague Judgments Convention 2019 applies to the UK and the EU. Any consequences for insolvency proceedings and preventive restructuring plans? The Hague Judgments Convention 2019 facilitates the recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial judgments, including consumer and individual employment contracts. Officially titled as The Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgements… Read More »2025-08-doc4 Hague Judgments Convention 2019 and preventive restructuring frameworks

2025-08-doc3 Municipalities in Financial Distress

The phenomenon of a “city” has always fascinated me. For instance, the historical roots of urban development, the acquisition by a city of its own “city rights” by the incumbent ruler, many centuries ago (at least in the Netherlands). See my recent book, written (in English) with historian Maurits den Hollander, titled Palace of Commerce: Amsterdam’s City Hall in the… Read More »2025-08-doc3 Municipalities in Financial Distress

2025-08-doc2 Two UNCITRAL Cross-border insolvency instruments explained

The UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency is close to thirty years old. After its slow start following its inception in 1997, the MLCBI (as it is now referred to) was considered by many countries, especially following its adoption by the big players, USA in 2005 and UK in 2006. In the last ten years alone, more than twenty countries… Read More »2025-08-doc2 Two UNCITRAL Cross-border insolvency instruments explained

2025-08-doc1 Is the DIP here to stay?

It is less than twenty-five years ago that in American legal literature the insolvency systems of some Western European countries were compared to a criminal law system. Everywhere the clock struck: liquidation of the business’s assets, piece-meal, everything to the creditors, with the result that the company had disappeared. In the original European Insolvency Regulation, which came into force in… Read More »2025-08-doc1 Is the DIP here to stay?