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8 Int'l Insolvency Rev. 1 (1999)

handle is hein.journals/intvcy8 and id is 1 raw text is: 











                              Editorial


The past year has seen many examples of the widespread international conse-
quences capable of resulting from economic and monetary crises occurring at
national, or regional, level. Such experiences serve to sharpen the urgency of
the case for reforming and improving the operation of insolvency law, both in a
domestic context and at the level of international agreements for handling
cross-border cases. Although the efforts of the European Union to implement
its Insolvency Convention have been stalled since May 1996, there are reports
of discreet attempts to reactivate that project, despite the seemingly entrenched
resistance to its potential impact on the part of certain Member states, notably
the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, there are more hopeful indications that the
UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency may be implemented
into the domestic laws of several countries, including the United States, in the
near future. Legislative proposals to that effect were included in Bankruptcy
Reform Bills that were tabled in the U.S. Congress during 1998. Unfortunately,
those Bills proved controversial for other reasons, and failed to pass into law.
Further attempts to enact the Model Law may take place during the 106th
Congress, which opened in January 1999.
  The articles published in this Issue of the Review provide a range of fascin-
ating insights into the evolving approaches to cross-border insolvency issues in
many different parts of the world. Pauline Gan, in her comparative survey of
Corporate Rescue Regimes in the Asia Pacific region, examines the latest efforts to
combat business failure in Australia, Thailand, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
Other aspects of recently-introduced reforms in the insolvency laws of Hong
Kong are analysed by Charles Booth and Philip Smart in their joint article,
entitled Retroactive or Prospective?, in which they reveal the hidden dangers of
over-hasty transplantation of new legislative provisions modelled upon those
introduced in another country as part of a more comprehensively designed
programme of reforms. The lack of clear and explicit provision regarding the
relevant date from which the new provisions are to be applicable can have
serious consequences for the debtor and others.
  Various factors, including that of linguistic accessibility, have resulted in a
somewhat uneven state of knowledge within the English-speaking world about
the current trends in cross-border insolvency law and practice in the different
Member states of the European Union. Italy is a case in point. The paper
contributed by Manfredi Burgio on The Italian Approach sheds some useful light
upon the subject, although the author concedes that his country's law is in
need of further development and modernisation. Areas of uncertainty are also
encountered in the statutory provisions in force in the United Kingdom, even
Copyright ( 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
CCC 1180 0518/99/010001 02$17.50                  Int. Insole. Rev., Vol. 8:1 2 (1999)

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