The Academic Forum of INSOL Europe, founded in 2004, is a constituent body of INSOL Europe, a Europe-wide association of practitioners in insolvency. The Academic Forum’s primary mission is to engage in the representation of members interested in insolvency law and research, to encourage and assist in the development of initiatives in the insolvency field, to foster the development of research in insolvency by younger scholars and to participate in the activities organised by INSOL Europe. The membership of the Academic Forum includes insolvency academics, insolvency practitioners with recognised academic credentials as well as those engaged in the research and study of insolvency. The Academic Forum meets annually in conjunction with the main conference of INSOL Europe and also arranges half-yearly conferences around suitable themes of interest to the practice and academic communities. Previous meetings have taken place in Prague (2004), Amsterdam (2005), Monaco (2007), Leiden and Barcelona (2008), Brighton and Stockholm (2009), Leiden and Vienna (2010), Milan, Venice and Jersey (2011).

At the Vienna Conference, Professor Stefania Bariatti was elected Chair of the Management Board for a three-year term. Dr. Paul Omar, (University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom) serves as Secretary to the Board, while Florian Bruder (Max Planck Institute, Hamburg, Germany), Jessica Schmidt (University of Jena, Germany), Myriam Mailly and Emmanuelle Inacio (Co-Chairs of the Young Academics Network) as well as Michael Veder (University of Utrecht, The Netherlands) are ordinary members of the Board. Professor Rebecca Parry (Nottingham Trent) is the new Editor of the Conference Proceedings series and ex officio a member of the board. A Supervisory Committee has also been established as a consultative board for Academic Forum projects whose membership includes senior insolvency academics and practitioners.

With sponsorship made available by Edwin Coe LLP, the Academic Forum has been able to offer young scholars travel grants to attend its conferences, research grants for scholarly projects as well as prizes for outstanding legal scholarship awarded on the basis of monographs and publications. Edwin Coe LLP has also kindly sponsored an annual lecture to be given by a scholar of international repute. In Barcelona, Professor Jay Westbrook (University of Texas), a distinguished researcher and author within the field of international insolvency, gave the first such lecture, the second being presented in Stockholm by Gabriel Moss QC (3/4 South Square), a renowned practitioner and author of numerous works on European insolvency law. The third lecture in Vienna was presented by The Hon Mr Justice Ian Kawaley (Supreme Court of Bermuda), while Professor Karsten Schmidt, President of the Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, Germany, delivered the fourth lecture at the Venice 2011 Conference.

A series of publications arising from Academic Forum conferences was inaugurated in 2009 by reports of the Joint Insolvency Conference at Leiden and the Annual Conference in Barcelona. These have now been joined by papers from the 2009 Brighton and Stockholm conferences, both published in 2010, as well as the 2010 Leiden and Vienna conference proceedings booklets, which made their appearance in 2011. The Milan, Venice and Jersey publications are also expected to appear in 2012. Overall, the publications are intended to form a comprehensive report of the conferences and contain accounts of recent research in the insolvency field useful for academics and practitioners alike.

The Academic Forum’s next meetings after Venice will be the Joint Insolvency Conference, organised together with Nottingham Trent University, in Nottingham (28-29 June 2012) and the Annual Conference in conjunction with the INSOL Europe conference in Brussels (10-11 October 2012), with further meetings being planned for 2013 in Lisbon and Paris. Details of these conferences will be posted, when available, via the Academic Forum website at: <http://www.insol-europe.org/academic/>. Further information about the work of the Academic Forum can be obtained from the same website or from the Secretary via e-mail at: <paulo@sussex.ac.uk>.