Control and co-ordination in corporate rescue

Abstract

The Enterprise Act 2002 sought to assist troubled companies by enhancing the rescue-friendliness of the UK insolvency regime. Assessing that regime calls for a focus on: the different roles and control powers of the various parties involved with troubled companies; the essential tasks that a rescue regime has to carry out; and the level of co-ordination that is to be expected between different parties. Key tasks in the furtherance of rescue are: the collecting of relevant information; the production of sound judgments and strategies; and the taking of timely actions and decisions. The problems of co-ordination, moreover, vary from task to task. For judges, central challenges in coming years will be not only to protect parties'rights within the new rescue regime but also to use judicial oversight powers to encourage co-ordinated action in pursuit of rescue. An appreciation of the co-ordination issue is central to an understanding of the post-Enterprise Act 2002 regime and the potential of the judges to enhance that regime in its furtherance of rescue