Document Type
Response or Comment
Publication Date
2023
Abstract
Toward the end of every semester that I teach bankruptcy, I let my students vote on which “non-traditional” insolvency regimes they would like to study, including municipal bankruptcy, sovereign bankruptcy, and financial institutions. What I am really trying to do is convey to the students that the default procedures and substantive rules in Chapters 7 and 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code do not apply to all types of enterprises. In Bespoke Bankruptcy, Professor Laura N. Coordes has given me a gift: the gift of the right words to describe my tradition, and a theoretical framework to undergird it. As Professor Coordes puts it, the world is full of “bankruptcy misfits,” entities whose social purpose, governance structure, or financial profile makes the template model of reorganization under the Bankruptcy Code unwieldy or even counterproductive. For such entities, Congress sometimes enacts what Professor Coordes calls “bespoke bankruptcy,” a non-Code set of procedures and substantive rules designed to fit a small group of debtors.
Recommended Citation
Christopher D. Hampson, Bespoke, Tailored, and Off-the-Rack Bankruptcy: A Response to Professor Coordes's "Bespoke Bankruptcy", 73 Fla. L. Rev. Forum 15 (2023).