1. Introduction

The Belgian legislature once again recently improved the statutory framework for business restructuring. Thus, any business - a broad concept that covers not only companies and non-profits but also independent contractors - in financial difficulty may request the opening of judicial reorganisation proceedings (procédure en réorganisation judiciaire), commonly referred to by insiders as "PRJ".

Under the 1992 ISDA Master Agreement, following an event of default, there is either an automatic termination or the non-defaulting party can serve a notice designating an Early Termination Date. There then has to be a determination by the non-defaulting party of the compensation that is owed by one party or the other. This is done by closing out the transactions, which involves determining gains or losses in replacing or providing the economic equivalent of the terminated transactions. Once that is done, a statement is served setting out the calculations.

Una sentencia del Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea (TJUE) avala sustituir una cláusula abusiva de vencimiento anticipado en un préstamo hipotecario por la aplicación del artículo 693.2 de la Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil (LEC), según el cual es válido y no abusivo iniciar una ejecución hipotecaria por impago de al menos tres cuotas mensuales.

Imagine that a debtor voluntarily concludes a transaction with a third party where he knows (or should know) that it hinders the creditor’s possibilities of collecting the debt. In civil law countries, a creditor can invoke the nullification of that legal act by means of a so-called actio pauliana. This raises the question of which court has jurisdiction in the case of an international dispute, regarding an actio pauliana, that is instituted by a creditor against a third party?

Brexit insolvency issues for trustees of pension schemes with overseas sponsors

You might remember that before 2016, in the world before the EU referendum (which did exist!), it was effectively not possible for the insolvency of an overseas sponsor of a UK pension scheme to trigger entry into the PPF unless the overseas sponsor had a branch or office (an “establishment”) in the UK (for legal geeks you might remember this was the issue discussed in the Olympic Airlines case which was heard by the Supreme Court in 2015).

Cases involving the application of the Council Regulation (EC) No. 1346 / 2000 (the ‘Regulation’) have been rare before the Maltese Courts since Malta joined the European Union in May 2004. Thus far, the only instance where an issue involving the interpretation of the Regulation arose involved a maritime case – The Foreign Economic Technical Co. Operative Company of China et vs m.v.

In Short:

The Situation: In Bakhshiyeva v Sberbank of Russia, a debtor sought to restructure English law-governed debts pursuant to an Azerbaijani restructuring proceeding. In order to prevent certain dissenting creditors from commencing enforcement proceedings against the debtor in the UK, the debtor asked the English court to provide an indefinite stay.

Ranking of claims payable to the government in respect of refunded subsidies depends on when they were granted

Judgment by the Supreme Court (Chamber One), November 20, 2018

Chronological parameters must be used when classifying claims arising from the obligation to refund subsidies. Accordingly, if the subsidies were granted before the insolvency order, the claim in respect of the refunded subsidy must be a pre-insolvency claim whereas if the subsidy was granted after the insolvency order, the claim for the refund must be a post-insolvency claim.

Cross-border insolvency law has been gaining importance in the EU’s legal system over the past few decades. Harmonising insolvency laws is a difficult process as the legal framework interacts with a myriad of domestic laws. In order to increase the effectiveness of cross-border insolvency proceedings, the original Council Regulation (EC) No 1346/2000 of 29 May 2000 on insolvency proceedings was replaced by new Regulation (EU) 2015/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 the Insolvency Proceedings (Recast) Regulation (the “Recast”).