Cross-border and international
Firm regulation of insolvency practitioners
Insolvency practitioners (IPs) are regulated as individuals, not through their firm. In fact, the practitioner’s independence within the firm is ...
“Bankruptcy on a Budget” – what’s going on in the Netherlands is relevant here
An interesting article on Dutch bankruptcy law by respected insolvency academic Dr Jessie Pool[1] at Leiden University, and what she ...
Legislative evidence of a barrier to business dynamism – s 588GAAC?
There must be some irony in the government asking the Productivity Commission, on the one hand, to inquire into “barriers ...
Shedding light on the dark side of insolvency practice
The Assistant Treasury Minister Dr Andrew Leigh has given support for the need to have good data to inform and ...
UNCITRAL Working Group V – Insolvency, New York, 13-17 April 2026
I am pleased to be again attending a meeting of Working Group V – Insolvency of UNCITRAL, in New York ...
Personal business liabilities and the World Bank’s B-Ready review of our insolvency laws
The World Bank’s B-Ready review process will be applied this year, 2026, to Australia’s business laws, including “business insolvency”, according ...
“NZ statutes occupy one page to every 5-6-7 pages in Australia” etc
Over the years there has been quite a bit of judicial and parliamentary banter from New Zealand about Australian insolvency ...
World Bank’s 2026 B-Ready review of Australian business insolvency and other laws
Next year, 2026, Australia will be the subject of a review by the World Bank under its new B-Ready assessment ...
Arbitration and insolvency – an arbitration week seminar
I was pleased to attend a panel session at Norton Rose Fulbright on 15 October 2025 – Breaking bread: slicing ...
Maybe we should just repeal s 588G – insolvent trading?
The law of insolvent trading under s 588G of the Corporations Act seems eternally unsatisfactory and always open to review. ...
UK Official Receiver appointed liquidator of Speciality Steel UK
On 21 August 2025, what is said to be the UK’s third-largest steelworks, Speciality Steel UK Limited (SSUK), has been ...
INSOL Academics Barcelona – competition and insolvency law
I was pleased to have presented my topic on the intersection between competition policy and insolvency and rescue law before ...
The new law’s limitations in controlling phoenix misconduct
I wrote the following commentary in February 2020, on the then proposed new anti-phoenix law, to assist the Department of ...
Australia’s cross-border insolvency proposal
UNCITRAL’s Working Group V – Insolvency – met in December 2024 and among other issues had before it a proposal ...
Australia on a slope? [continued]
My various comments about Australia’s standing in the world corruption stakes, below, go back to 2022 – Australia on a ...
Australia’s suggested update of UNCITRAL’s Cross-Border Insolvency Guide
The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Working Group V (Insolvency Law) is meeting this week 16-20 December 2024 ...
Insolvency and competition law – two disciplines moving as parallel universes, without coordination
“Ultimately, it seems that the two disciplines move as parallel universes, without any coordination …”. Only “by linking the attempt ...
What is the future of insolvency practice?
In my reply to an interesting comment from a practitioner about the fundamental difficulties of lack of funding for insolvency ...
Insolvency law terms – what do they mean?
While insolvency law uses many and varied terms to describe its various processes for dealing with an insolvent business, no ...
Insolvency law’s elephants in the room
Professor Jason Harris and I will be presenting a session at INSOL Academics Colloquium in San Diego USA on 22 ...
NZ insolvency practitioner sanctioned
A sanction of a New Zealand liquidator for the poor handling of his matters provides an illustration of New Zealand’s ...
“Shock horror – insolvent people don’t have many assets”
While we wait for the useful annual statistics from AFSA as to dividend returns in bankruptcies in 2022-2023,* an insolvency ...
Insolvent trading in context
Insolvent trading is one of the many items for review recommended by the Parliamentary Joint Committee report on Corporate Insolvency. ...
Regulation of firms offering insolvency services
Further to my earlier post on insolvency practitioner (IP) regulation in the UK, and contrary to expectations,[1] the UK government ...