Ms Sarah Paterson

This course is available on the MSc in Law and Accounting, Master of Laws and Master of Laws (extended part-time study). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course will be relevant to the following LLM specialisms: Corporate and/or Commercial Law. This course is capped at 30 students. Students must apply through Graduate Course Choice on LSE for You.

This course focuses primarily on registered companies and is concerned with the principles and policies underlying the legal treatment of insolvency and corporate rescue. The course considers how the nature of the problems raised by insolvency varies and is dependent on the legal identity of the insolvent (for example, whether the insolvent is a company with limited liability or an individual running a business) and the course examines the legal responses to these problems. The formal legal procedures available for dealing with companies in distress are analysed as are informal approaches to corporate failure. Topics include: Introduction: Aims and Objectives. Outline of insolvency procedures. The administration of insolvency processes: insolvency practitioners, the Insolvency Service and turnaround professionals. Causes of corporate failure/Who goes bankrupt? Corporate Rescue Procedures: informal rescues. Corporate Rescue Procedures: formal procedures. Business rescues - comparative approaches: USA, Chapter 11.

20 hours of seminars in the MT. 2 hours of seminars in the ST.

A variable format: some lecture-discussions, some student-paper-led discussions, some debates and guest speakers where appropriate.

One 2,000 word essay.

A full Reading List will be distributed during the course. The recommended text is V. Finch, Corporate Insolvency Law: Perspectives and Principles (Cambridge University Press, 2009) (2nd edition). Wider background reading will include some comparative law reform and other material including: The Report of the Review Committee on Insolvency Law and Practice (Cork Report) (Cmnd 8558, 1982); T H Jackson, The Logic and Limits of Bankruptcy Law, Harvard (1986).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.