How does the objective of achieving payment for creditors in insolvency interact with the objectives of pension legislation, which seeks to ensure that individuals are adequately provided for in retirement? The courts in New Zealand and in the UK have each recently grappled with this issue. In both of the recent cases considered in this article the pensions objectives won out and the specific pension funds in question were not made available for the bankrupt individual's creditors.

A revision of Dutch insolvency law is being considered to introduce a new scheme of arrangement process. The process, based on English law schemes of arrangement, is likely to have far-reaching consequences for both Dutch insolvency and finance law. 

FROM CREDITOR-CENTRIC TOWARDS DEBTORFOCUSSED INSOLVENCY LAW

Interest rates that remain near zero and debt maturities that have been pushed out to 2017 and 2018 have helped drive chapter 11 filings to historic lows. Has this difficult environment put corporate restructuring on life support?

In recent years, manufacturers and lessors of heavy industrial equipment have installed sophisticated systems into their units which require a computer code be entered in order for the equipment to operate. This computer code may need to be updated or changed periodically. If the purchaser or lessee is in arrears in making payment to the manufacturer or lessor, the manufacturer or lessor may refuse to supply the debtor with the new access code. In effect, the manufacturer or lessor has the ability to remotely render the equipment unusable.