Isaac Newton had good reason for believing space to be absolute, and absolute space to be essential to the operation of the laws of motion. In a famous example, he noted that water in a rapidly spinning bucket is at rest relative to the bucket, yet has a concave surface.

The INSOL International Helsinki 2018 Joint One-Day Seminar took place at the Hilton Helsinki Strand Hotel on Wednesday 13th June and was jointly organised by INSOL International, INSOL Europe and the Finnish Insolvency Law Association (FILA) and enjoyed the presence of more than 100 delegates representing ten different jurisdictions: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Sweden, the UK and the US.

L’Application du règlement 1346/2000 relatif aux Procédures d’Insolvabilité aux Groupes des Sociétés (The application of the European Insolvency regulation to corporate groups: an Anglo-French perspective) by Myriam Mailly.

First of all, a new consolidated version of the EIR Recast has been published on 26 July 2018 to reflect the changes introduced by the Regulation (EU) 2018/946 of 4 July 2018, replacing Annexes A and B to Regulation (EU) 2015/848 on insolvency proceedings (OJ L 171, 06.07.2018, p. 1-10).

All modern European systems of law in force today provide for some sort of liability system for directors of companies, triggered by situations related to insolvency. If in some cases the obligations of the directors or the liability cases are loosely defined (holding the directors liable if general duties are disregarded), other pieces of legislation provide detailed and specific situations for misconduct leading to personal liability.

On 29 March 2017, the Government of the United Kingdom activated Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, formally commencing the UK’s exit from the EU.

The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 fixed the exit date for 11pm on 29 March 2019. With only just over 6 months remaining until the UK officially divorces from the European Union, we summarise the current position and impact of withdrawal on EU-UK cross-border insolvency proceedings.

On 22 June 2018, the Eurogroup reached what was termed a “historic” deal on a debt relief for Greece, a momentous achievement and the final step for Greece’s return to economic normality, after almost a decade of European and IMF bailouts. The debt package was portrayed in the public domain as “an historic moment for the Eurozone”, “the end of the Greek crisis” and even “the biggest act of solidarity that the world has ever seen”. However, the same enthusiasm is not shared by all. Concerns still persist that the agreed measures are not sufficient to restore debt sustainability.

On 21 August 2018, the Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament adopted Angelika Niebler’s Report on the European Commission’s Directive Proposal on preventive restructuring frameworks, second chance and measures to increase the efficiency of restructuring, insolvency and discharge procedures and amending Directive 2012/30/EU. Indeed, the committee on Legal Affairs recommended that the European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure (Article 294 TFUE) should amend the European Commission’s Directive Proposal.

Insolvency and restructuring could be described as the corporate equivalent of critical care – bringing together multiple expert practitioners to provide life- support to some companies, and help them on the road to recovery, and palliative care to others.

The book Transaction Avoidance in Insolvencies is now seeing the publication of its 3rd edition. The text consists of no less than 26 chapters and covers 639 substantive pages and over 100 devoted to the tables and index. The heart of the work is to be found in the four chapters on the key provisions of transaction avoidance.