Radu Lotrean
President of
INSOL Europe

Last chance to reserve your place!

Don't forget that our Young Members Group Drinks Reception is making its comeback – this time in the capital of Latvia, Riga, immediately following the close of the EECC conference on Friday 1 June 2018 starting at 6.30pm (finishing at around 8.30pm) at the Radisson Blu Latvija hotel's Skyline Bar with spectacular views over the city of Riga. 

We wish to let you know that this reception is kindly sponsored by Schiebe & Collegen.

To register for the drinks reception,
email the Group Co-Chairs: 
Sabina Schellenberg, Anne Bach,
or Georges-Louis Harang  

Visit our website here to register for the Conference in Riga.

Registration now open!

Some guest rooms at the Congress venue still available: Reserve your room at the special delegate rate before they sell out.

Athens will be the perfect place for brainstorming, creating new connections, networking and meeting other like-minded professionals.

This year the Congress will be held at the Hilton Athens Hotel where we have arranged a special rate for delegates. Hilton Athens is a destination itself as the hub for Athens’ business, cultural and social life. The hotel is in the centre of Athens, just a short walk from the upmarket district of Kolonaki with steps to Metro station, linking directly to the airport and beyond. There are impressive views of the Acropolis and city from many rooms and the rooftop Galaxy Bar and a Spa with fitness centre, salon, heated indoor pool and a large outdoor pool. Click here to reserve your room at the special rate.

Download the
Registration Brochure.

Register here!

We look forward to seeing you in Athens for our 37th Annual Congress!

Is Bitcoin Property?
Dutch and Russian Responses

The capital structures of companies in the 21st century will be starkly different from those of the last century. Once driven by hard assets, such as real estate, natural resources and machinery, modern businesses have become highly dependent and valued mostly on the basis of intangible assets – contracts, intellectual property and goodwill.

Recent years have seen a rapid development of new technologies allowing for the creation of novel types of intangible assets with their own value and characteristics. There is hardly anyone these days who has not heard about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general. As the world’s first decentralised digital currency, Bitcoin has become possible thanks to the blockchain technology – based on publicly distributed, shared and immutable digital ledgers. Anonymity and irreversibility of transactions on blockchain have made it attractive for users.

A lot does, however, depend on public perception (i.e. trust) and government reaction. The latter so far has been rather mixed. Among rising fears of the technology being used for illicit activities (money laundering, extortion, financing of terrorism, etc.) and weak investor protection, state authorities struggle to find a balanced solution. But while regulatory and legislative bodies take their time to establish legal frameworks for the operation of the crypto market, courts have no such time and are faced with the need to expeditiously resolve real disputes. This is particularly so in the context of insolvency cases, in which several questions may arise. For instance, how to treat various types of digital assets belonging to the debtor, how to trace them in cases where the debtor refuses to disclose their existence, transfers them to third parties or simply refuses to provide access to the insolvency practitioner or court? And lastly, how to dispose of them and at what exchange rate, if any?

This Inside Story by Ilya Kokorin (of Counsel, Buzko and Partners, Russia; Lecturer, Leiden University) follows two recent cases, one from Russia and the other from the Netherlands, where the courts considered whether Bitcoin constituted ‘property’ and could provide a valid legal ground to initiate insolvency proceedings. Read the full Inside Story and other articles here.

If you would like the opportunity to have your Inside Story published in a future edition, please email Communicatons Manager, Paul Newson for details.

The Cross-Border Corporate Insolvency and Commercial Law (CI&CL) Research Group of the City University of London hosted its second conference in London on 27 April 2018. Following the success of last year’s inaugural event, this year’s conference continues with the aim of becoming an established international forum for the discussion of recent developments and issues in the field of corporate insolvency law and practice. 

Participants from more than 17 countries representing six continents of the world attended the latest event, which was generously supported by INSOL Europe, Thomson Reuters and City University of London.

The forum was chaired jointly by Professor Jason Chuah (Head of Academic Law, City University of London) and Eugenio Vaccari (CI&CL Research Group Founder), who, in their opening address, highlighted the relevance of corporate insolvency law and practice in the current economic and political climate. In the morning session, papers on cross-border issues, corporate practice and the impact of artificial intelligence on insolvency practice featured. Two afternoon sessions were held in parallel building on the expertise of academics and practitioners alike, the idea being to offer delegates the opportunity to follow presentations of interest to their area of practice and expertise.

Overall, the conference presented a challenging and stimulating environment for PhD candidates and early career researchers, enabling them to discuss their research with more experienced attendees from practice and academia. A full report by Eugenio Vaccari will follow in the Summer edition of Eurofenix. 

UNCITRAL's Working Group V (Insolvency Law), in its 53rd session, has just completed its work on the Model Law on recognition and enforcement of insolvency-related judgments which, together with the draft guide to enactment, will be submitted to the UNCITRAL Commission for finalisation and adoption within the year. States are invited to incorporate the Model Law into their national laws with the intention of harmonising cross-border enforcement and recognition of insolvency-related judgments.

The new model law is designed to complement the existing 1997 UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency ("MLCBI"). Legislation based on the MLCBI has been adopted by many jurisdictions, including certain of the EU Member States: the United Kingdom, Poland, Slovenia and Greece. The Model Law on recognition and enforcement may be incorporated by States on a stand-alone basis, also if they have not enacted the MLCBI.
 
Further, the Working Group continued its consideration of:

1. draft legislative provisions for a stand-alone model law on facilitating the cross-border insolvency of multinational enterprise groups;
2. core provisions relating to micro, small and medium-sized companies; and
3. the proposal by the United States for the development of model legislative provisions on civil asset tracing and recovery.

 INSOL Europe was honoured to have been invited to send a delegation to the 53rd session which was held in May 2018 in New York.  Our delegate, Florian Bruder of DLA Piper, will provide a more detailed update on the session, including a summary of some of the key points discussed among the States regarding the new Model Law on recognition and enforcement of insolvency-related judgements in the next issue of Eurofenix. Further information on UNCITRAL Working Group V.

The Richard Turton Award provides an educational opportunity for a qualifying participant to attend the INSOL Europe Annual Congress, all expenses paid, which this year will take place in Athens (Greece) in October.

The award is open to applicants who:

• Work in and are a national of a developing or emerging nation;
• Work in or are actively studying insolvency law and practice;
• Are under 35 years of age at the date of the application; and
• Have sufficient command of spoken English to benefit from the conference technical programme.

The successful applicant will be asked to write a paper of 3,000 words on a subject of insolvency and turnaround to be agreed with the panel. This paper will then be published in summary in one or more of the Member Associations' journals and in full on their websites. 

For full details including the closing date for entries, visit our website.