Personal Insolvency in the 21st Century

Iain Ramsay is Professor of Law at the University of Kent.

...Ramsay’s book is one of the most informative accounts of the development of personal insolvency law and law-making in the past decades and the best socio-legal explanation of the driving forces behind legislative developments.

• 1. The Rise of Personal Insolvency Law I. Introduction II. Explanations for Stability and Change in Personal Insolvency Law III. Household Debt, Neo-liberalism, and Personal Insolvency Law IV. Summary 2. US Exceptionalism? I. Introduction II. The Challenge of the Wage Earner Debtor: The 1930s III. The Wage Earner as Consumer Debtor: 1950s–1978 IV. Layering and Changing the Narrative: 1978–97 V. BAPCPA 2005—the Great Recession and the Future VI. The Role of the State in US Bankruptcy Law VII. Discussion 3. Drift, Conversion, and Layering: England and Wales I. Introduction II. The Players in English Personal Insolvency Reform III. Drifting—the Sad Life of the English Administration Order IV. Conversion: The Individual Voluntary Arrangement V. Framing the Policy Response After the Enterprise Act: Borrowing Binges VI. Relief for the Deserving Poor: The Debt Relief Order VII. The Great Recession and Personal Insolvency Law VIII. Discussion 4. France: Contingency, the Role of Narratives, and the New Droit Social I. Introduction II. Over-indebtedness Regulation in Context III. The Development of the Over-indebtedness Regime IV. Legitimating Narratives: From Active to Passive Debtor to...? V. The Changing Institutional Landscape: Commissions, Courts, and the Law in Action VI. Discussion 5. Sweden: The Quality of Mercy is Strained I. Introduction II. Swedish Regulation of the Consumer Credit Market III. The Development of the Swedish Debt Restructuring System IV. Who Accesses the Swedish Debt Restructuring System? V. Debt Counselling and the ‘Enabling Welfare State’ VI. The Five-Year Plan VII. Protection Against Home Eviction and Mortgage Foreclosure VIII. Discussion 6. After the Crisis: Towards an International ‘Common Sense’ in Personal Insolvency Law? I. Introduction II. International Initiatives: After the Great Recession III. European Union Consumer Credit Policy and Personal InsolvencyIV. EU Personal Insolvency Policy after the Crisis V. EU Narratives VI. Bankruptcy Tourism, Regulatory Competition, and Regulatory Learning VII. Towards a European Paradigm? VIII. Conclusion 7. Conclusion: The Future of Personal Insolvency in the Twenty-First Century I. Influential Interest Groups II. Contemporary Narratives of Personal Insolvency III. Technocracy and Democracy in Personal Insolvency Reform IV. The Limits of Individual Insolvency?