Professor Sarah Paterson

This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time) and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course has a limited number of places and demand is typically high. This may mean that you’re not able to get a place on this course.

Many students find that the course complements Corporate Rescue and Reorganisation (LL4AJ), although this is not a prerequisite.

This course is concerned with the principles and policies underlying the realisation and distribution of a company’s assets in an insolvency. The impact of these principles on third parties such as corporate groups, secured and unsecured creditors, directors, and employees, is also considered. Topics include: secured credit;  the distributional order of priority in insolvency; setting aside transactions; protecting unsecured creditors and consumers; the problem of corporate groups; company directors in troubled times; employees in distress; and European and international recognition of insolvency proceedings.

This course will have 20 hours of teaching in the Lent Term and two hours in the Summer Term. There will be a Reading Week in Week 6 of Lent Term.

One 1,500 word essay.

A full Reading List will be distributed during the course. For introductory purposes students are directed to V. Finch and D. Milman, Corporate Insolvency Law: Perspectives and Principles (Cambridge University Press, 2017) (3rd edition).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the summer exam period.