Insolvency and Restructuring Glossary 2016
Entering in the legal area of restructuring in the EU, new legal terms will become part of our jargon. Cram-down, stay, restructuring and moratorium are just a few of them. This ‘Glossary of Terms and Descriptions in Insolvency’, has formed an Appendix, published in the Global Principles for Cooperation in International Cases (‘Global Principles’), drafted by prof. Ian Fletcher and myself, which were published in June 2012 by the American Law Institute (ALI) and International Insolvency Institute (III). Additions to this Glossary have been added in May 2016.
Many states and regional public institutions, international non-governmental organisations and practitioners’ associations have produced many laws, regulations, principles, guidelines and statements of best practices. All these forms of expressions aim for the better coordination of insolvency measures or proceedings concerning economic enterprises which have operations, assets, activities, debtors or creditors in more than one state. In several instances these laws, regulations and principles provide for a list of definitions or terms, employed frequently within the legal context within which they function.
Supporting Legislative Reform
This Appendix aims to develop a uniform global legal terminology and therefore to assist legislators, insolvency practitioners and courts in their efforts of improving the components of their respective languages to facilitate and smoothen cross-border communication and coordination. Legislators may find this appendix helpful in their efforts of creating or amending domestic rules relating to international insolvency. The methodology followed has been a general gathering of these terms and expressions from documents referred to in the footnotes which can contribute to a better understanding and knowledage of insolvency matters in a broader context. Therefore the Glossary also contains terms generally not related to insolvency, such as “contract”, “obligation” or “duty”. This 2016 update has been delivered by members of the Turnaround Rescue and Insolvency Research Team of the University of Leiden (www.tri-leiden.eu), in particular Gert-Jan Boon LLM, with the assistance of Nastia Grishkova and Robert de Regt, students in the Honors programme.