Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
BOOK REVIEWS - GOODE ON PRINCIPLES OF CORPORATE INSOLVENCY LAW (5th Edition)
Gerard McCormack
Professor of International Business Law, University of Leeds
GOODE ON PRINCIPLES OF CORPORATE INSOLVENCY LAW (5th Edition). Edited by Kristin van Zwieten, Associate Professor of Law, Fellow of Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. Sweet & Maxwell/Thomson Reuters, London (2018) cvi and 967 pp, plus 246 pp Appendices and 22 pp Index. Hardback £259.
It was with great pleasure that I received another edition of Goode’s Principles of Corporate Insolvency Law. Almost from the beginning of my academic career I have gone through previous editions with great interest and this edition maintains the illustrious standards of its predecessors. It is the first under the new reins of Dr Kristin van Zwieten, who takes over largely from Sir Roy Goode, though Sir Roy is thanked loyally in the preface and Dr van Zwieten had a helping role in at least one previous edition.
As indicated already, in my view the new edition maintains the august reputation of its predecessor. It is very well expressed, concise in its commentary, pretty much up to date and expressed in suitably measured tones though not reticent about articulating its own sentiments where this is considered to be necessary. For instance, it is more supportive of Lords Sumption and Clarke in the Lehmans Waterfall 1 litigation than the leading majority judgment of Lord Neuberger. The view is expressed that “English insolvency is largely procedural, seeking to do minimal violence to pre-insolvency entitlements, and it can only be hoped that it will be revisited when the opportunity arises”.
Be that as it may, the focus of the book is on not just English insolvency law but on English insolvency law in its European and international dimensions. Since the last edition was published, in 2011, the previous European Insolvency Regulation—Regulation 1346/2000—was replaced by the recast Regulation—Regulation 2015/848—and Chapter 15 covers the recast Regulation in detail.
Also, since the last edition was published, we of course have had the Brexit vote. The book remarks (at p.812) that “The UK position will obviously change on completion of the Brexit transition process, but at present it remains unclear what (if any) new framework
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