An essay of no more than 5000 words (excluding footnotes, cover page, bibliography, and any table of content or table of statutes) is required in answering one of the following questions.
This is a law essay, therefore, the in text referencing style used should be footnotes.
In an essay like this the expected number of references to be used is around 28-38 references.
Attached is a list of all the major references needed for the insolvency law field. Also, below that are all the major references needed for the different topics from the questions. They are highly useful and recommended to be used.
Statutes, case law, nooks, articles and papers are to be used as references.
Essay Topics:
Answer one question
1. Critically consider the manner in which the rules striking down transactions at undervalue or unfair preferences resolve the tension between achieving creditor equality, deterring debtor misbehavior, and affording finality to commercial transactions (RJ Mokal, Corporate Insolvency law: Theory and application (2005) p 305) and in light of your findings consider the manner in which the rules can be improved.
2. Three key notions underpinned Corks vision of the administrator: that rescue opportunities should be taken sufficiently early in corporate troubles to stand a chance of success; that companies should be given a breathing space from the interests, not merely of creditors and shareholders, but of the widest group of parties potentially affected by the insolvency.
Venessa Finch, Corporate Insolvency Law: Perspective and Principles (2nd edn, 2009) p 364.
Critically discuss the extent to which administration in the United Kingdom (as revised by the Enterprise Act 2002) fulfils these objectives.
3. Just as too many spices can spoil the soup, so, too, including too much in bankruptcy law can undermine what everyone agrees it should help a firm stay in business when it is worth more to its owners alive than dead. That is a far cry, however, from saying that it is an independent goal of bankruptcy law to keep firms in operation. Not all businesses are worth more to their owners or to society alive than dead, and once one recognizes that, one has to identify which firms bankruptcy law should assist and why. Much bankruptcy analysis is flawed precisely because it lacks rigor in identifying what is being addressed and why it is a proper concern of bankruptcy law. Bankruptcy law, at its core, is dept-collection law.
T H jackson, The logic and limits of bankruptcy law (1986) pp 2-3
Critically discuss.
4. Critically evaluate whether the law in the United Kingdom adequately supports the use of pre-packaged administrations, and if not should the law facilitate the ready use of pre-packaged administrations?
5. Critically assess when a company is unable to pay its debts under the Insolvency Act 1986 (as amended), considering specifically whether the law takes adequate account of contingent and prospective liabilities and assets.
6. The wrongful trading section [Insolvency Act 1986, s 214] has … proved to be a disappointment in terms of numbers of reported cases. …
Judicial approaches to section 214 have … not added to the efficacy of the provision. This is an area where there has been an unhelpful confusion about the role and purpose of the law.
Vanessa Finch, Corporate Insolvency law: Perspective and Principles (2nd edn, 2009), pp 700 & 701
Critically discuss.
7. Despite the hold exercised by the equality principle on the imagination of most insolvency lawyers, the principle is sometimes acknowledged, as a descriptive matter, not to have too much application in the real world.
Rizwaan Jameel Mokal, Corporate Insolvency Law: Theory and Application (2005) p 96
Disregarding rights in security critically discuss.
8. Critically examine the use of the concept of the centre of a debtors main interests as a connecting factor in international legislation relating to cross-border insolvency, and consider whether it provides sufficient certainty and ensures that forum shopping is not feasible.
9. Critically consider the extent to which the law of personal insolvency should permit a debtor to have a financial fresh start through the discharge of the debtors past financial obligations.
