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Developments in International Insolvency Law: Trends and Challenges
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Developments in International Insolvency Law: Trends and Challenges

A special issue of Laws (ISSN 2075-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2025) | Viewed by 8827

Editor

Prof. Dr. Rebecca Parry

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK
Interests: insolvency law; company law; regulation of emerging technologies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

International insolvencies have seen many interesting developments in recent years, including:

  • In the development of restructuring tools, including prepacks, and cross border insolvency processes in recent years;
  • Many developments at EU level including an ambitious programme of harmonisation of selected areas, as well as work by other international groupings and organisations;
  • There have been common issues around crypto insolvencies, insolvencies of wide public impact, including distressed local public entities, and controversies around third-party releases;
  • There have been different approaches to the treatment of stakeholders in insolvencies and efforts to develop normative frameworks to balance different rights, including in cross border insolvencies;
  • There have been significant efforts to tailor insolvency laws for micro, small and medium enterprises.
  • Emerging technologies have also presented opportunities and challenges for insolvency laws.

These are just a few potential areas that illustrate some of the trends and challenges of insolvency law in an international context.  This Special Issue will offer an open-access platform indexed in Scopus and other databases.  It will provide an excellent platform to showcase quality work and based on previous editions it will gain a wide readership.

You may already be busy with other writing commitments and won’t have a suitable project for this but do let me know if there is anyone else who might be interested.

Prof. Dr. Rebecca Parry
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Laws is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • insolvency law
  • bankruptcies
  • cross-border insolvencies
  • stakeholders

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 233 KB  
Article
Shortcomings in the Tracing of Digital Assets in the EU’s Insolvency III Directive
by Dominik Skauradszun and Paula Moffatt
Laws 2026, 15(3), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws15030040 - 11 May 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 660
Abstract
This paper examines whether the brand-new EU Directive harmonising certain aspects of insolvency law (Insolvency III) with its Title III on asset tracing is fit for the digital age and whether it offers adequate tools for the tracing of digital assets, such as [...] Read more.
This paper examines whether the brand-new EU Directive harmonising certain aspects of insolvency law (Insolvency III) with its Title III on asset tracing is fit for the digital age and whether it offers adequate tools for the tracing of digital assets, such as crypto-assets under the EU Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation (MiCAR). The study will demonstrate that Title III on asset tracing has been outdated since the inception of the Insolvency III as it has a ‘blind spot’ on tracing digital assets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Developments in International Insolvency Law: Trends and Challenges)
29 pages, 363 KB  
Article
The Interplay of Legal Capacity, Convergence, and Development in Insolvency Reform
by Bolanle Adebola
Laws 2026, 15(3), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws15030039 - 6 May 2026
Viewed by 1096
Abstract
The wholesale transplantation of foreign insolvency laws with minimal contextual adaptation—rule convergence—can be inimical to development in African states because it displaces the legal capacity through which insolvency systems become institutionally responsive over time. Situated within a transnational reform order shaped by overlapping [...] Read more.
The wholesale transplantation of foreign insolvency laws with minimal contextual adaptation—rule convergence—can be inimical to development in African states because it displaces the legal capacity through which insolvency systems become institutionally responsive over time. Situated within a transnational reform order shaped by overlapping developmental and market-integration logics, insolvency reform is frequently promoted through global scripts, technical assistance, and benchmarking regimes that reward rule convergence. This order and the discourse that supports it often operate within an implicit economic-growth development paradigm that treats legal development as achievable through the external supply of ‘best practice’ rules supported by enforcement capacity. This paper challenges that view, advancing a systematic conceptualisation of state legal capacity as the evolving institutional ability to formulate, adapt, interpret, implement, enforce and legitimate legal rules in response to societal legal demand. Applying this framework to corporate and insolvency reform trajectories in East and West Africa, the paper shows how rule transplantation produces capacity displacement, undermining endogenous legal development and development more broadly. Insolvency reform must therefore be understood as a project of legal capacity-building rather than of rule importation, enabling African states to act as co-producers in the evolution of global insolvency norms and models. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Developments in International Insolvency Law: Trends and Challenges)
28 pages, 638 KB  
Article
Nationalisation as a Response to Failing Public Service Providers: Challenges and Alternatives
by Rebecca Parry and Hakan Sahin
Laws 2026, 15(2), 25; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws15020025 - 2 Apr 2026
Viewed by 1526
Abstract
There have been multiple examples in recent years of nationalisation being used as a strategy for protecting the functions of failing public service providers. In the UK, at present, there is a demand for the nationalisation of Thames Water, which supplies water to [...] Read more.
There have been multiple examples in recent years of nationalisation being used as a strategy for protecting the functions of failing public service providers. In the UK, at present, there is a demand for the nationalisation of Thames Water, which supplies water to 16 million users but is struggling financially and operationally. Proponents of nationalisation often overlook the complexity of the process, which involves the expropriation of shares and can be an expensive option. The expense arises in part due to the globalised investment context, where bilateral investment treaties (BITs) between various countries require compensation from foreign investors who suffer expropriation. There is wide foreign ownership of Thames Water, as well as many other UK public service suppliers. The practical and legal obstacles to nationalisation may mean that compensation must be paid at full market value, or not far short of it, even where the nationalised company is insolvent or failing. This paper examines the compensation frameworks applicable to the nationalisation of distressed public service providers with foreign ownership, analysing both bilateral investment treaties and the European Convention on Human Rights. Using Thames Water as a detailed case study, we demonstrate that current international investment law standards, which were developed for the expropriation of profitable enterprises, prove ill-suited when applied to the nationalisation of insolvent companies. Requiring “prompt, adequate and effective” compensation at fair market value for failing public service providers, such as utilities, creates perverse outcomes, as the taxpayers are asked to fund both the rescue of failed private ownership and the infrastructure investments that private owners neglected, while the shareholders who presided over the decline receive windfalls from state intervention. We propose an alternative framework based on four graduated responses: (1) enhanced regulatory intervention before failure occurs; (2) the use of upstream insolvency procedures, including restructuring plans; (3) the use of ordinary insolvency procedures of liquidation and administration; and (4) nationalisation as a last resort when market-based solutions are exhausted. Crucially, in this last case, we advocate for compensation to be calculated on a basis that reflects the insolvency of the nationalised entity. This entails valuing expropriated interests at what shareholders and creditors would have received through the insolvency proceedings that nationalisation displaces, which will typically be well below market value, even zero. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Developments in International Insolvency Law: Trends and Challenges)
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20 pages, 1155 KB  
Article
An Insolvency Toolkit for SMEs in Emerging Economies—A Spotlight on Uganda
by Hamiisi Nsubuga
Laws 2026, 15(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws15010008 - 22 Jan 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1701
Abstract
This article examines the subject of SME failures due to financial distress in emerging economies by focusing on Uganda as a case study. It adopts a convergent doctrinal and empirical approach, drawing on existing black letter law and literature alongside some of the [...] Read more.
This article examines the subject of SME failures due to financial distress in emerging economies by focusing on Uganda as a case study. It adopts a convergent doctrinal and empirical approach, drawing on existing black letter law and literature alongside some of the empirical data obtained from a survey of SME business owners impacted by financial distress, a survey of accredited insolvency practitioners and exchanges from a stakeholder workshop on SME insolvencies in Uganda. The article examines existing legal, regulatory and procedural frameworks on corporate rescue and the identified gaps exacerbating SME failures in unpacking why, despite the availability of these frameworks, business rescue as the policy objective of Uganda’s insolvency law has yet to be fully achieved. The article devises a recommended toolkit that if adopted, may guide the approaches needed to improve SME rescue, and meet legal and statutory objectives of Uganda’s insolvency frameworks to enhance economic stability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Developments in International Insolvency Law: Trends and Challenges)
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29 pages, 378 KB  
Article
Small Firms, Big Gap: Rethinking MSME Rescue in EU Insolvency Law
by Emilie Ghio
Laws 2025, 14(6), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws14060099 - 17 Dec 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1852
Abstract
This paper argues that despite two decades of reform, the European Union’s (EU) insolvency framework remains structurally and behaviourally inaccessible to micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). While policy rhetoric has embraced the idea of a “rescue culture,” practical implementation has prioritised larger, [...] Read more.
This paper argues that despite two decades of reform, the European Union’s (EU) insolvency framework remains structurally and behaviourally inaccessible to micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). While policy rhetoric has embraced the idea of a “rescue culture,” practical implementation has prioritised larger, well-resourced firms. Drawing on international guidance and case studies from Ireland, France, and the United States (US), the paper shows that legal reform alone is insufficient. Structural complexity, cultural stigma, and weak institutional outreach continue to block MSMEs’ access to rescue. The paper proposes a forward-looking agenda for EU reform centred on three pillars: legal simplification tailored to MSMEs, institutional scaffolding to enhance visibility and support, and cultural reframing to normalise restructuring as a second chance. It concludes that a functioning rescue culture must treat MSMEs not as scaled-down versions of large firms but as distinct users with unique constraints and capacities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Developments in International Insolvency Law: Trends and Challenges)
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