![handle is hein.journals/dukjppsid20 and id is 1 raw text is:
FRAUDULENT TRANSFER LAW
AND SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY: AN
ACTUAL ABUSE OF FEDERALISM?
KYLE S. BECK*
INTRODUCTION
In Federalist No. 45, James Madison declared that [t]he powers
delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are
few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments
are numerous and indefinite.' Nonetheless, Madison acknowledged
that some matters were so integral to the harmony and intercourse
of a unified nation that they must be enumerated for the federal
government.2 One such area was found to be so intimately tied to
interstate commerce that to permit otherwise would allow parties to
exploit discrepancies amongst the states and commit fraud: the
bankruptcy power.3 Thus, the Constitutional Convention approved the
Bankruptcy Clause, granting Congress the power [t]o establish ...
uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United
States.4 Only Connecticut voted in opposition, prompted by Roger
Sherman's concerns about how England had punished some
bankruptcies with death.5 Despite an absence of extensive debate, a
more appropriate concern was raised by Anti-Federalists, who
* Duke University School of Law, J.D., 2026. Cornell University, B.S., 2023. I would like to thank
the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy Staff for its guidance and assistance in
the creation of this Commentary, as well as Professors Steven L. Schwarcz and Ernest Young for
their valuable feedback.
1. THE FEDERALIST No. 45 (James Madison).
2. THE FEDERALIST No. 42 (James Madison).
3. Id.
4. U.S. CONST. art. I § 8, cl. 4.
5. See Historical Background on Bankruptcy Clause, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS,
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C4-2-
2/ALDE_00013181/#ALDF_00020140 (citing Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 as
Reported by James Madison, in Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the Union of the
American States, H.R. Doc. No. 398, at 632 (1927); Thomas E. Plank, The Constitutional Limits
of Bankruptcy, 63 TENN. L. REV. 487, 527 (1996); Judith Schenck Koffler, The Bankruptcy Clause
and Exemption Laws: A Reexamination of the Doctrine of Geographic Uniformity, 58 N.Y.U. L.
REV. 22,35 (1983).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/dukjppsid20&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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