Rescue of business in Europe

This edited volume is based on the European Law Institute's (ELI) project 'Rescue of Business in Insolvency Law'.

The project ran from 2013 to 2017 under the auspices of the ELI and was conducted by Bob Wessels and Stephan Madaus, who were assisted by Gert-Jan Boon.

The study sought to design (elements of) a legal framework that will enable the further development of coherent and functional rules for business rescue in Europe.

This includes certain statutory procedures that could better enable parties to negotiate solutions where a business becomes financially distressed.

Such a framework also includes rules to determine in which procedures and under which conditions an enforceable solution can be imposed upon creditors and other stakeholders despite their lack of consent.

The project had a broad scope, and extended to consider frameworks that can be used by (non-financial) businesses out of court, and in a pre-insolvency context.

Part I of this book, the ELI Instrument as approved by the ELI Council and General Assembly, features 115 recommendations on a wide variety of themes affected by the rescue of financially distressed businesses, such as the legal rules for professions and courts, treatment and ranking of creditors' claims, contract, corporate and labour law as well as laws relating to transaction avoidance.

Part II consists of national reports that sketch the legal landscape in 13 States and of an 'Inventory Report on International Recommendations from Standard-Setting Organisations', both of which provided insight for the drafting of the Instrument.

This volume is designed to assist those involved in a process of law reform and those setting standards for soft law in the business rescue context.