Vanessa Finch provides a new look at corporate insolvency laws and processes. She adopts an interdisciplinary approach to place two questions at the centre of her discussion. Are current UK laws and procedures efficient, expert, accountable and fair? Are fundamentally different conceptions of insolvency law needed for it to develop in a way that serves corporate and broader social ends? Topics considered in this fully up-to-date and wide-ranging book include different ways of financing companies, causes of corporate failure and prospects for designing rescue-friendly processes. Also examined are alternative asset distribution of failed companies, allocations of insolvency risks and effects of insolvency on a company's directors and employees. Finch argues that changes of approach are needed if insolvency law is to develop with coherence and purpose. This book will appeal to academics and students at advanced undergraduate and graduate level, and to legal practitioners throughout the common law world.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Table of cases; Table of statutes and other instruments; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Agendas and Objectives: 1. The roots of corporate insolvency law; 2. Aims, objectives and benchmarks; Part II. The Context of Corporate Insolvency Law: Financial and Institutional: 3. Insolvency and corporate borrowing; 4. Corporate failure; 5. Insolvency practitioners; Part III. The Quest for Turnaround: 6. Rescue; 7. Informal rescue; 8. Receivers and their role; 9. Administration; 10. Company arrangements; 11. Rescuing rescue; Part IV. Gathering and Distributing the Assets: 12. Gathering the assets: the role of liquidation; 13. The pari passu principle: when everyone is equal?; 14. By-passing pari passu; Part V. The Impact of Corporate Insolvency: 15. Directors in troubled times; 16. Employees in distress; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.