ABSTRACT

Alarmed at the ease with which global bankruptcy jurisdiction can be engineered in the US through a combination of the Bankruptcy Code’s low bar to entry and the worldwide effects of a bankruptcy case, critics argue that the US promotes abusive bankruptcy forum shopping and harmful imposition of US norms on overseas stakeholders. This article advances a revised account of US bankruptcy jurisdiction over non-US debtors from a distinctively Anglo-American standpoint. The article’s central thesis is that critics overemphasise formal jurisdictional rules and pay insufficient attention to how US courts actually exercise jurisdiction in practice. It compares the formal law ‘on the books’ in the US and UK for determining whether or not a domestic insolvency or restructuring proceeding relating to a foreign debtor can be maintained in each jurisdiction and provides a functional account of how US bankruptcy jurisdiction over foreign entities is exercised in practice using the concept of jurisdictional congruence as a benchmark.

摘要

批评者对《破产法》的低准入门槛和破产案的全球影响相结合，可以轻易地在全球范围内设计全球破产管辖权感到震惊，批评家们认为，美国提倡滥用滥用破产保护地购物和对美国施加不利影响海外利益相关者规范。本文从英美两国的独特立场出发，对美国对非美国债务人的破产管辖权提出了修订的解释。文章的中心论点是，批评家过分强调正式的管辖权规则，而对美国法院实际上如何行使管辖权却没有给予足够的重视。