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- Title
UK SUPREME COURT HIGHLIGHTS PAROCHIAL ROADBLOCKS TO COOPERATIVE CROSS-BORDER INSOLVENCY IN RUBIN V. EUROFINANCE SA.
- Authors
AXELROD, TRISTAN G.
- Abstract
This article examines the recent UK Supreme Court case that struck a blow to bankruptcy trustees and plaintiffs seeking to recover illgotten and fraudulently transferred funds held abroad. The case effectively barred UK courts from recognizing foreign bankruptcy judgments, and will prove persuasive to similarly situated courts around the globe. In its ruling, the brand new court narrowly interpreted both British common law and the UK enactment of the "cooperative" Model Law on Cross- Border Insolvency to maximize its own authority relative to foreign judiciaries and domestic political institutions. The decision in Rubin v. Eurofinance SA was litigated over a small matter, but the decision guides strategic decisions in multi-billiondollar insolvency cases. The case was partly financed on appeal by litigants of the remnants of the infamous Madoff ponzi scheme. The goal was to test the boundaries of the highly influential British common law, as well as the Model Law, in furthering international cooperation that could streamline complex bankruptcy proceedings. In a blow to the Madoff trustee and victims, the decision effectively foreclosed the possibility of centralizing the proceedings. This article argues that the decision provides a highly effective precedent as well as an important signpost of "territorialist" policy at the forefront of cross-border insolvency jurisprudence. The UK Supreme Court's careful reasoning and its implicit political motives provide an excellent example of the practical limits to the high-minded goals of the international cross-border insolvency regime.
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; GREAT Britain. Supreme Court; EUROFINANCE SA; INTERNATIONAL bankruptcy; LEGAL judgments; BANKRUPTCY trustees; COMMON law; MODEL laws; PONZI schemes; ACTIONS &; defenses (Law)
- Publication
Wisconsin International Law Journal, 2013, Vol 31, Issue 4, p818
- ISSN
0743-7951
- Publication type
Article