The Court of Appeal’s judgment in HSBC Bank v Tambrook Jersey Limited ([2013] EWCA Civ 576) has confirmed that section 426 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (the Act) empowers English courts to ‘assist’ a foreign insolvency court in circumstances where no insolvency proceedings are underway or in contemplation before that court. This decision overturns the judgment of Mann J in the High Court and affirms the wide access enjoyed by foreign-registered companies to English rescue procedures under section 426.

There are very few known cases about the practice of Art 5 of EC Insolvency Regulation (1346/2000). In Hungary there is a case related to Art 5, in which the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has made a preliminary judgment (C-527/10).

Comparison of U.S. vs. European Distressed Debt Market and Restructuring Environment (2013 ABI New York City Bankruptcy Conference - Wilbur L. Ross Jr., Rick Morris, Marc A. Broude, Lisa G. Beckerman, Daniel B. Kamensky, Ben Pickering

2013 is shaping up to be the year of the European Insolvency Regulation (“EIR”). The review process which began in 2012 is due to conclude with responses being expected from national authorities and interested parties on the draft amending regulation that was issued by theEuropean Commission on 12 December 2012.

EUROPEAN UPDATE: Group Insolvency Law under Discussion in Germany and Europe (citation: Dr. H. Philipp Esser, Group Insolvency Law under Discussion in Germany and Europe, XXXII ABI Journal 4, 50-51, 103-04, May 2013) - H. Philipp Esser

Commercial Fraud/International/Technology & Intellectual Property (2013 ABI Annual Spring Meeting) - Hon. Judith K. Fitzgerald, David W. Tohn, Cullen Drescher Speckhart

The law of 6 April 2013 on dematerialised securities entered into force on 19 April 2013. It introduces a legal regime for dematerialised securities, inspired by existing regimes in Belgium, Switzerland and France.

There are two main sources of confusion in the public corporate governance debate. One is the confusion about the role of public policy intervention. The other is a lack of empirical knowledge about the corporate landscape where rules are supposed to be implemented and the functioning of today’s equity markets, where voting rights and cash flow rights are traded. To mitigate some of this confusion, this paper provides both an analytical framework for the role of public policy and a description of the empirical context that influences the conditions for that policy.

When encountering fraud or misconduct, the thought of commencing open ended civil litigation is enough to bring the majority of insolvency practitioners out in a cold sweat. Uncertainty about the outcome and the potential cost to the estate is usually the first concern, swiftly followed by the justifiable questioning of whether there is in fact a commercial upside.

I recently met with a senior investigator from the UK’s tax authority and discussed, amongst other things, a tax fraud which swept across Europe in 2010. Carbon credit tax fraud was a variation onMTIC (missing trader intra community) tax fraud which is often associated with mobile phones and computer chips.