The history of corporate rescue in the UK

Abstract

During the past few years rescue culture flourished in the world. Many countries recently experienced a process of legislative reform and development in relation to their corporate rescue legislation. All of them tried to provide more chance for a company to overcome their financial difficulties through legislation. It has been believed that "assets would be more highly valued if utilized in the industry for which they were designed, rather than scrapped." (Note 1) The Insolvency Act 1986 since it is applied had experienced a long history. However the effect of it in the area of corporate rescue is disappointed. The Enterprise Act 2002 marked a shift in direction for corporate insolvency law in the UK, which meant the UK had realized the weakness of the Insolvency Act 1986. This can be seen as the first step that the UK made to develop the rescue culture. However, this step is not long enough. In this article, firstly I will generally summarize the development of corporate rescue law in the Enterprise Act 2002. Then I will try to give my own proposal about what need to be further developed in the near future.