A01=David A. Skeel
Absolute Priority
Amendment
Auction
Author_David A. Skeel
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy Act
Bankruptcy Act of 1898
Bankruptcy discharge
Bankruptcy in the United States
Behalf
Bond (finance)
Capital structure
Category=LNCB
Category=LNPC
Chapter 11
Commerce Clause
Commercial law
Committee
Consumer
Consumer debt
Consumer protection
Corporate action
Corporate finance
Corporate law
Corporation
Credit (finance)
Creditor
Debt
Debtor
Deliberation
Employment
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eq_nobargain
Expense
Federal judge
Filing (legal)
Financial distress
Foreclosure
Fraud
Harvard Law School
Ideology
Income
Insider
Insolvency
Interest rate
J. P. Morgan
Jurisdiction
Law firm
Law school
Lawyer
Legislation
Legislative history
Lobbying
Mortgage loan
Payment
Personal bankruptcy
Political economy
Populism
Provision (accounting)
Provision (contracting)
Public choice
Receivership
Recession
Requirement
Restructuring
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Security interest
Shareholder
Small business
Sovereign default
State court (United States)
Title 11
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Underwriting
United States Code
Unsecured creditor
Voting
Product details
- ISBN 9780691116372
- Weight: 425g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 30 Nov 2003
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Bankruptcy in America, in stark contrast to its status in most other countries, typically signifies not a debtor's last gasp but an opportunity to catch one's breath and recoup. Why has the nation's legal system evolved to allow both corporate and individual debtors greater control over their fate than imaginable elsewhere? Masterfully probing the political dynamics behind this question, David Skeel here provides the first complete account of the remarkable journey American bankruptcy law has taken from its beginnings in 1800, when Congress lifted the country's first bankruptcy code right out of English law, to the present day. Skeel shows that the confluence of three forces that emerged over many years--an organized creditor lobby, pro-debtor ideological currents, and an increasingly powerful bankruptcy bar--explains the distinctive contours of American bankruptcy law. Their interplay, he argues in clear, inviting prose, has seen efforts to legislate bankruptcy become a compelling battle royale between bankers and lawyers--one in which the bankers recently seem to have gained the upper hand.
Skeel demonstrates, for example, that a fiercely divided bankruptcy commission and the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress have yielded the recent, ideologically charged battles over consumer bankruptcy. The uniqueness of American bankruptcy has often been noted, but it has never been explained. As different as twenty-first century America is from the horse-and-buggy era origins of our bankruptcy laws, Skeel shows that the same political factors continue to shape our unique response to financial distress.
David A. Skeel, Jr. is a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania and has written widely on corporate and bankruptcy issues.
