Guest editorial: The performance of the courts put to the test

• Date: 01 December 2020
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/iir.1387

GUEST EDITORIAL

Guest editorial: The performance of the courts

put to the test

The availability of a sound, efficient corporate insolvency framework is often considered a key

element in a well-functioning market economy, one that promotes efficient allocation of

resources, boosts corporate investment and productivity and stimulates job creation.

1

From a

European perspective, timely and effective judicial responses do have a positive impact on the

overall competitiveness of European Union (EU) enterprises and on the consolidation of the

internal market.

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Accordingly, the EU has given a great deal of attention to this matter, framing

the development and consolidation of rules and procedures in Member-States towards corpo-

rate restructuring and insolvency, in order to provide entrepreneurs with a second chance or

with a less traumatic way out from the market.

The need for such solutions became very prominent with the 2008 economic and financial

crisis that swept several EU domestic economies. The impactful economic downturn exposed

two worrying weaknesses in national insolvency regimes across Europe: a remarkable ineffi-

ciency regarding credit recovery, as well as ineffectiveness in restructuring viable enterprises.

As such, the European Commission began a set of legal and political reforms aiming for further

coherence among domestic laws and for increased efficiency concerning courts' performance.

These reforms are reflected in the European Commission 2014 Recommendation,

3

the Recast

European Insolvency Regulation

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and the Preventive Restructuring Directive.

5

The implemen-

tation of these reforms creates a great pressure in the judicial system and deeply affects its per-

formance. It also highlights its gaps and insufficiencies in being able to accommodate new

requirements for faster and more efficient responses.

The performance of the courts has been at the centre of both political and public debates,

being one of the success indicators in the development of public policies related to access to law

and justice (besides its relevance in international “friendship for business”rankings), particu-

larly in what concerns the right to obtain a decision in a reasonable time. That performance is

shaped by a combination of factors, such as the legal environment, the human, material and

technological available resources and the perceptions and expectations of judicial stakeholders

towards the procedures. This was one of the main conclusions provided by the research project

ACURIA—Assessing Courts' Undertaking of Restructuring and Insolvency Actions: Best Practices,

Blockages and Ways of Improvement, funded by the European Commission DG Justice and Con-

sumer Affairs.

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This issue of the International Insolvency Review presents some of the topics that emerged

from the research carried out by the research team of ACURIA. Ranging from more legal-

theoretical approaches to more legal-empirical ones, the four texts of the research team partners

show that there is room for improvement, not only in legal rules, but also in the enforcement of

existing ones. They also underline some of the best practices revealed in the work of the courts

DOI: 10.1002/iir.1387

© 2020 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Int Insolv Rev. 2020;29:319–321. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/iir 319