Modular Bankruptcy: Toward a Consumer Scheme of Arrangement

Abstract

In the world of cross-border corporate insolvency, those in the know are familiar with the increasingly popular scheme of arrangement, the British quasi-reorganization procedure that allows a company to restructure some, but not all, of its debt. The typical scheme effects a corporate balance sheet reshuffling by supermajoritarian approval (and judicial sanction ) but often leaves other debt, such as the trade, untouched. A key conceptual component of the scheme mechanism is its intentional modularity, called by some its selectivity. It does not require a comprehensive reckoning of all claims against a given debtor, only some. The scheme has proved popular-so popular, in fact, that corporate bankruptcy market share-grabber Singapore introduced scheme-like procedures in its most recent overhaul of its insolvency system. Indeed, some wags have pronounced it the Decline and Fall of Chapter 11