Corporate Reorganisation Law and Forces of Change

Sarah Paterson

Explains a new approach to the theory of corporate reorganisation law focussing on the impact of market changes on law and practice
Sets out an inter-institutional approach analysing formal legal rules in combination with other, non-legal and legal institutions
Compares the legal and market landscape in the UK and US promoting harmonisation efforts in Europe and in non-European jurisdictions

Corporate Reorganisation Law and Forces of Change

Sarah Paterson

Description

Corporate Reorganisation Law argues that corporate reorganisation law is seen by market participants as a tool they can mobilise and adapt according to practices, logics, and identities in the of the financial and non-financial corporate markets. Thus changes in market practice, in the participants in the process, or in how the participants view their objectives, can significantly change the ways in which corporate reorganisation law is mobilised and adapted, even if the law has not undergone any reform.

This book argues that corporate reorganisation law cannot be evaluated using a theoretical model in isolation from the wider institutional context in which corporate reorganisation law is mobilised and adapted by the participants to the process. In establishing the new methodology, the book undertakes a detailed analysis of six key changes in market practice, logic and identities in the financial and non-financial corporate fields. A comparative US/UK approach is adopted in analysing both the process of institutional change and the implications for law. This provides a fascinating lens through which to see how different institutional environments in the financial and non-financial markets in different jurisdictions are drawing together, and interacting with very different legal systems which were adapted to the distinct, original institutional environments in which they were developed. From this analysis important lessons for legal harmonisation efforts in Europe and in non-European jurisdictions are drawn out.

The work emphasises the need to look at formal legal rules in combination with other, non-legal and legal institutions and argues that current reform debates in both the US and UK have suffered because scholars, practitioners, and policy makers have not started their evaluation of the case for reform by placing corporate reorganisation law in this wider institutional context. The book aims to fill this gap, and to provide a methodological approach for the future.

Corporate Reorganisation Law and Forces of Change

Sarah Paterson

Corporate Reorganisation Law and Forces of Change

Sarah Paterson

Author Information

Sarah Paterson is Associate Professor of Law at the LSE where she teaches and researches corporate insolvency and restructuring law. Before joining the LSE, Sarah was a partner in the Restructuring and Insolvency Group at Slaughter and May, with whom she retains a consultancy. She has written widely on insolvency and restructuring and is a co-author of Debt Restructuring 2e (OUP, 2016), and edits McKnight, Paterson and Zakrzewski on The Law of International Finance 2e (OUP, 2017).

Corporate Reorganisation Law and Forces of Change

Sarah Paterson

Reviews and Awards

"Corporate Reorganization Law and Forces of Change is an excellent addition to the literature on insolvency and corporate restructuring law." -- Alisdair MacPherson, University of Aberdeen, The Edinburgh Law Review

"Corporate Reorganization Law and Forces of Change provides a novel, fresh approach to the study of corporate reorganisation law." -- Eugenio Vaccari, International Company and Commercial Law Review

"This engaging and interdisciplinary study by Sarah Paterson offers an examination of how creditors in the UK and US have mobilised and adapted the law in a variety of ways to achieve restructurings ... Readers will gain understanding of two complex systems in a well-written text that should be of interest even to non-specialist readers." -- Professor Rebecca Parry, Nottingham Law School, Eurofenix

"Paterson's excellent new book cleverly combines examination of law and finance and demonstrates how the law is mobilized and adapted in the US and UK to suit the case at hand in various ways in the corporate reorganisation context... The book is important because of changes in the financial field that have had significant impacts on large corporate restructuring cases in recent years, namely a shift from "a hold-to maturity, working capital debt market to a traded, leveraged market"... The book builds upon and expands [Paterson's] previous work and in doing so it makes an excellent contribution to literature on the topic of corporate reorganisations... The book takes an Anglo-American approach and offers considerable enlightenment in regard to both systems. It draws upon an extensive range of interdisciplinary literature and has an excellent account of relevant statutes and cases, as well as industry publications and approaches." -- Rebecca Parry, International Insolvency Review