مقدمة

في خطوة مبتكرة نحو ترسيخ مبدأ العدالة الاجتماعية، أعلنت دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة عن إلغاء عقوبة الحبس للمدينين المعسرين. يهدف هذا القرار إلى حماية الأفراد غير القادرين على سداد ديونهم بسبب ظروف خارجة عن إرادتهم، ويشكل انعكاسًا واضحًا لالتزام الإمارات بتطبيق أسس حقوق الإنسان والتسامح. في هذا المقال، سنستعرض تفاصيل هذا القرار وتأثيراته القانونية والاجتماعية على الأفراد والمجتمع.

من هو المدين المعسر؟

What is a debt restructuring?

The aim of any restructuring (also sometimes called a workout) is to rearrange the debtor’s financial commitments so that it is able to service its restructured debts and survive as a going concern. It is important to note that this is a consensual process and is not undertaken under the supervision of a court or other supervisory body - therefore, it is important the all creditors are involved.  

If it’s voluntary, how does it work?

Introduction

While in other jurisdictions creditors of an insolvent company may swap their debts into equity, creditors in Austria are still confronted with a “take it or leave it” approach as to the proposed quota payment to unsecured creditors. The recent insolvencies of large Austrian companies show the inadequacy of Austrian insolvency law in that respect.

Financial crisis just arrives

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.

Tax treatment in the hands of the creditor

The waiver of debt results in the accounting ‘loss’ of a receivable. Such loss, however, is not automatically tax deductible in the hands of the creditor.

The deductibility of such loss may be prohibited, either because it is deemed not to be incurred to retain or increase taxable income (‘general deduction criterion’), or because it is deemed to be an ‘abnormal or benevolent advantage’ granted to the debtor (‘anti-abuse rule’).

Entry into force on 1 April 2009 of the new Act on the continuity of companies

The Act of 31 January 2009 on the continuity of companies (Loi relative à la continuité des enterprises/Wet betreffende de continuïteit van de ondernemingen, the "Act") entered into force on 1 April 2009.

The Act of January 31, 2009 on the continuity of companies (Loi relative à la continuité des enterprises/Wet betreffende de continuïteit van de ondernemingen, the "Act") entered into force on April 1, 2009.

Can liquidators disclose legal advice to creditors without waiving privilege? Common interest privilege may assist.

Common interest privilege

Legal professional privilege protects communications between a lawyer and client created for the dominant purpose of seeking or providing legal advice or for current or anticipated litigation.

If advice is disclosed to third parties, there may be a waiver of that privilege.

Although safeguard proceedings have been used successfully as a negotiation tool in a number of high-profile cases (such as the Eurotunnel case), they have represented just 1 per cent of all insolvency proceedings in France since the Business Safeguard Act 2005 introduced the safeguard procedure in January 2006. The main reason for this lack of success is the continuing stigma that is attached to insolvency proceedings in France.