Guest editorial: The rise of early career insolvency law academics and researchers

• Author: Jennifer Gant,Gert‐Jan Boon,Eugenio Vaccari
• Date: 01 May 2020
• Published date: 01 May 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/iir.1363

EDITORIAL

Guest editorial: The rise of early career

insolvency law academics and researchers

1|YOUNGER ACADEMICS AT THE FOREFRONT OF

RESTRUCTURING AND INSOLVENCY

Insolvency and restructuring law is in a boom of activity, owing in part to the introduction of

the Preventive Restructuring Directive

1

in the European Union and the shifting of the global

landscape in insolvency law further toward rehabilitation and restructuring. It seems even the

fundamental principles and theories that have underpinned and justified collective proceedings

that interfere with creditors' individual contractual rights are undergoing a paradigm shift. The

growth of interest in this area is evident from the many funded projects that have taken place

in insolvency and restructuring law over the last several years. Three examples of the growing

field of insolvency related research are the ELI Business Rescue Project,

2

which completed in

2017, the CODIRE project,

3

which completed in 2018, and the JCOERE Project,

4

which is ongo-

ing and due to complete at the end of 2020.

It is not surprising, then, that there is a growing interest in the field of restructuring and

insolvency law as topics of focus for young PhD researchers and early career academics.

Not only has the number of younger researchers grown over the last few years, they have

also become increasingly better connected. Drivers in this area have been networks of young

academics, such as the Younger Academics Network of Insolvency Law (YANIL, part of the

INSOL Europe Academic Forum),

5

and the INSOL Early Researcher Academics (INSOL ERA,

part of INSOL International).

6

These groups facilitate connections and collaborations with

insolvency academics across the globe and have proved to be a great source of cross-fertilization

for PhD research in insolvency and restructuring research.

The year 2019 has shown two milestones in regard of these networks: the tenth anniversary

of YANIL and the establishment of INSOL ERA.

2|YOUNGER ACADEMICS NETWORK OF INSOLVENCY

LAW (YANIL)

In 2009, YANIL (previously YAN) was established by a joint initiative of Professor Emeritus

Bob Wessels and Dr Myriam Mailly. The network was embraced as a branch of the INSOL

Europe Academic Forum (“IEAF”), with the aim of bringing together postgraduate and PhD

students along with early career academics. In those days, younger researchers in particular

were often working remotely on their research and opportunity to collaborate was limited. With

YANIL, younger academics in Europe were given a platform to connect with peers and engage

DOI: 10.1002/iir.1363

© 2020 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Int Insolv Rev. 2020;29:3–7. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/iir 3