Prospectus

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International Insolvency Law

Course
2022-2023

Disclaimer: Currently these pages are being updated to reflect the courses for 2022 - 2023. Until these pages are fixed as per 1 September 2022 no rights can be claimed from the information which is currently contained within.

Should there be any future changes of the Covid 19 virus which may impinge our teaching and assessment, these could necessitate modification of the course descriptions after 1 September. This will only happen in the event of strict necessity and the interests of the students will be taken into account. Should there be a need for any change during the course, this will be informed to all students on a timely basis. Modifications after 1 September 2022 may only be done with the approval and consent of the Faculty Board and Programme Director.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The course on International Insolvency Law (IIL) aims to give students profound knowledge of and thorough insight in the legal theory and practice of restructuring and insolvency law in a transnational and comparative context. The importance of studying insolvency from an international perspective has increased significantly over the past decades, with globalisation of businesses which has turned insolvency into an international affair. This applies, in particular, in times of economic crisis. With creditors as well as the company’s assets being located in different jurisdictions, the cross-border context of restructuring and insolvency proceedings has to be addressed. The international setting in which debtors as well as creditors operate has added complexity to both restructuring or insolvency proceedings and the ways for creditors to make their claims effective.

The concept of restructuring and insolvency will be studied in a broad sense. This includes out-of-court workouts, pre-packs, restructuring, winding-up, but also bankruptcy. Furthermore it extends to the ways in which corporate restructuring and insolvency is regulated, both by hard law as well as soft law instruments.

The IIL course starts by exploring the principles of insolvency law, the main actors in restructuring an insolvency proceedings and the theoretical frameworks for dealing with cross-border insolvency proceedings. The understanding of these ‘insolvency basics’ creates the foundation for a more solid study of international (cross-border) insolvency law. Emphasis will be placed on corporate debtors and the effectiveness of mechanisms for dealing with cross-border restructuring and insolvency proceedings at a global level. The focus will be on the insolvency frameworks that have been developed by the United Nations Committee on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), in particular, its Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (1997), as well as the European Union with its European Insolvency Regulation Recast (2015) and Preventive Restructuring Directive (2019). In addition, several other international (soft law) instruments on cross-border and substantive restructuring and insolvency will be addressed during the course.

CONTACT

Programme Coordinator LLM (Adv) International Civil and Commercial Law
Office for International Education / Leiden Law School
E: iccl@law.leidenuniv.nl

COURSE COORDINATOR

Mr. Gert-Jan Boon
T: +31 71 527 7939
j.m.g.j.boon@law.leidenuniv.nl

METHOD OF INSTRUCTION

Lectures and case studies (combined with online components if necessary).

EXAMINATION

Written exam (75%)
Written assignment (25%)

The overall course grade should be at least 5,5 in order to complete the course successfully.
There will be one retake (100%) substituting all previous assessments. It will be up to the discretion of the examiner to decide on the form of the retake.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Full degree in law granting access to the legal profession (or equivalent).