The UK Supreme Court heard argument last week in a case raising important issues about when the courts of the UK and Wales will accept cross-border bankruptcy court judgments. The case is Rubin v. Eurofinance SA. The issues presented will take in increasing importance due to globalization, and cross-border mass torts that will bankrupt some multinationals. The intermediate Court of Appeals accepted the judgement in a rather unusual opinion tied around a belief in bankruptcy court exceptionalism.
For a UK view and summary of the case, see this post on the UK Supreme Court blog. For a US view of a paul Weiss lawyer sharply criticizing the intermediate decision, see this article from the Columbia Law Review. For a similarly sharp UK attack, see this article from a Freshfields lawyer.
One might view this case as one aspect of the growing use of legal tourism (that is – forum shopping) to find the most favorable venues for a particular legal problem. Delaware created an entire industry of chapter 11 cases by And various companies have moved their headquarters around the globe to acheive legal goals, often tax-related. And now individuals from Ireland are using legal tourism (forum shopping) by moving to the UK to wipe out debt that’s too hard to be rid of in Ireland.
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