In In re O’Reilly, 598 B.R. 784 (Bankr. W.D. Pa. 2019), the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania denied the petition of a foreign bankruptcy trustee for recognition under chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code of a debtor’s Bahamian bankruptcy case. Although the Bahamian bankruptcy was otherwise eligible for chapter 15 recognition, the U.S.

The Law On Insolvency (Bankruptcy) of 13 July 2012 comes into force on 25 January 2013. The law is not introducing bankruptcy of individuals despite many voices raised in favor of this concept so far unknown to the Belarusian legal system. However, other important novelties may be summarised as follows:

This article reflects on some of the options offered under Belgian law by the actio pauliana, commonly referred to in English as the 'clawback' rules (for further details please see "Reservation of title: legal guidelines and practical tips" and "

Enactment

On 11 September the Belgian Act that introduces certain measures to restrict the activities of vulture funds (the “Act”) was published in the Belgian Official Journal.

As a general rule, lodging an appeal against a judgment no longer suspends its enforceability. This should accelerate the recovery of outstanding debt in Belgium.

Recovering outstanding debt in Belgium can feel like a long-winded and sometimes frustrating job. A creditor who obtained a judgment against a defaulting debtor is often confronted with an appeal by that debtor, lodged with the only intention to put the enforcement of this judgment on a back burner. Most courts of appeal built up a large backlog as a result of the massive workload of among others these dilatory appeals.

The Business Continuity Act of January 31 2009, amended in 2013, provides for specific (court-supervised) restructuring proceedings, during which the company (or debtor) is protected against its creditors' claims so that it can reorganise its business.

Easy access and protection

Recently, the Belgian Continuity of Enterprises Act (hereinafter the “Act”) celebrated the fifth anniversary of its adoption by the Belgian parliament. Since its entry into force on 1 April 2009, the Act has been quite successful: in comparison with the former “Judicial Composition Act” of 17 July 1997, a significantly larger number of enterprises have had recourse to it. The Act does indeed offer a new range of options – including a potential judicial settlement with debtors – intended to help distressed companies to recover from their financial situation.

Since the entry into force of the Financial Collateral Act of 15 December 2004 (the "Collateral Act") implementing Directive 2002/47/EC on financial collateral arrangements as regards linked systems and credit claims (the "Collateral Directive"), financial collateral arrangements have benefitted from increased flexibility and legal certainty in Belgium.

After almost four years of existence, the Belgian “Act on Continuity of Enterprises” has achieved great success for companies in financial difficulties that wish to shelter from creditors’ lawsuits in order to attempt a restructuring of their business. The Act enables distressed companies to use effective and flexible recovery procedures to continue their business activities and to avoid insolvency.

The Business Continuity Act of 31 January 2009 (the "Act") creates a variety of flexible tools to promote business recovery. This update focuses on the new judicial (i.e., court-supervised) reorganisation proceedings (as opposed to out-of-court workouts and court-supervised sales of the business).

Simplified access to proceedings