The INSOL Academics Colloquium was held over the weekend of 18-19 March 2017 in Sydney.

The session covered a wide range of topics relevant to Australian practitioners and academics and policy makers.

These included the potential impacts of Brexit on UK insolvency; the impact of the EU changes on Australian creditors; comparative creditor protections in restructuring and deregistration regimes in the UK, the US and the Netherlands; rising personal over-indebtedness in China, and its implications; ipso facto clauses and executory contracts; the US concept of “deepening insolvency”; tax priorities, from a Dworkian perspective; the gap between expectation and insolvency practitioner performance; the factor of ‘survivability’ of rescued businesses; rule based workouts in Japan and China; Singapore’s new debt restructuring laws; and technology and the harmonisation of corporate and personal insolvency.

Sessions with a focus on insolvency practitioners included:

• the regulation of Australian insolvency practitioners overseas;
• independence;
• NZ and trans-Tasman practitioner regulation;
• the concept of ‘fit and proper’;
• the UK and Australian regimes, examining the comparative roles and responsibilities of ARITA and the professional bodies; and
• the rise in the UK of officialism, and its potential for adverse impact on the profession. 

A report was also given on a global survey of insolvency practitioner regulation, with QUT Law covering Australia and the Asia/Pacific/Fiji rim.

Overseas academics from the UK, the US, India, South Africa, the Netherlands, Singapore, Malaysia, Austria, New Zealand, Germany, Israel, and China attended. 

A number are attending QUT’s Conference this Friday, 24 March in Brisbane – Global Perspectives in Insolvency Law.

A full report on the Colloquium will appear in INSOL World.