As your correspondent attends insolvency gatherings in England and Belgium, he thought it useful to gather together some related events and issues across the globe.
- UNCITRAL Model Law Working Group V met in New York in May 2016 and covered the cross-border insolvency of multinational enterprise groups; the recognition and enforcement of insolvency-derived judgements; and directors’ obligations in the period approaching insolvency. This is supported in Australia by the UNCITRAL National Co-ordination Committee for Australia (UNCCA), headed by Tim Castle.
- The Comité Maritime International conference, also in New York in May 2016, discussed a proposal from Professor Martin Davies of Tulane, USA, for resolution of the conflicts between maritime law and cross border insolvency. Professor Davies spoke in Sydney on 6 July 2016. Further details soon.
- INSOL International is conducting an international survey on the processes of assessment of insolvency practitioner remuneration across a range of jurisdictions.
- Nottingham Trent University is also conducting an international survey on practitioner regulation, in which QUT is assisting for the Australia Pacific region.
- The European Commission held its one day conference – Convergence of insolvency frameworks within the European Union – the way forward – in Brussels, on 12 July 2016. This discussed the EU’s announced adoption, in March 2014, of a recommendation on a new approach to business failure and insolvency for the EU, aiming to ‘enable efficient restructuring of viable enterprises in financial difficulty and give honest entrepreneurs a second chance to run a successful business’. This will be assisted by a report written by the University of Leeds for the European Commission on substantive insolvency laws in the EU and their divergence.
- INSOL Academics is holding its colloquium in London on 13-15 July 2016, chaired by Professor Rosalind Mason of QUT.
- QUT is holding a personal insolvency conference in Brisbane on 7-9 September 2016, with a range of international speakers including Professor Jay Westbrook and Iain Ramsay.
- A FAIR conference (Forum for Asian Insolvency Reform) is being held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on 21-22 November 2016, sponsored by INSOL International, the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam, and the World Bank Group.
- The UK has called for comments on major insolvency reforms, including a three month moratorium on creditor claims. Submissions to its consultation paper, A review of the Corporate Insolvency Framework, of 25 May 2016, closed on 6 July 2016.
- The 10th annual conference of the Insolvency Academics Network (IAN) is being held at Sydney University on 5 December 2016.
Should any reader need to know any more about these, please contact Michael Murray.
