3 - Insolvency Systems Around the World

Summary

This chapter seeks to provide a general overview of insolvency systems around the world, providing examples and references from more than fifty jurisdictions from Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. Due to a variety of factors, including legal origins, legal transplants, and the adoption of "international best practices," this chapter shows that insolvency laws in advanced economies and emerging economies share many similarities. Therefore, the primary divergences between insolvency systems in advanced economies and emerging markets are not found on the "law on the books" but on the market and institutional environments in which insolvency law operates. For that reason, insolvency law in many emerging economies has failed to deliver the expected goals and ultimately serve as a catalyst for growth. Therefore, insolvency law in emerging economies needs to be reinvented.