Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Heuer, Jan-Ocko --- "CONSUMER INSOLVENCY PROCEEDINGS IN EUROPE: AN INTRODUCTION TO CONSUMER OVER-INDEBTEDNESS AND DEBT RELIEF" [2019] ELECD 1191; in Kadner Graziano, Thomas; Bojars, Juris; Sajadova, Veronika (eds), "A Guide to Consumer Insolvency Proceedings in Europe" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 2

Book Title: A Guide to Consumer Insolvency Proceedings in Europe

Editor(s): Kadner Graziano, Thomas; Bojārs, Juris; Sajadova, Veronika

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: CONSUMER INSOLVENCY PROCEEDINGS IN EUROPE: AN INTRODUCTION TO CONSUMER OVER-INDEBTEDNESS AND DEBT RELIEF

Author(s): Heuer, Jan-Ocko

Number of pages: 11

Abstract/Description:

In the past decades, the growth of consumer credit has led to increased debt problems of private households, and many economically advanced countries have responded to this social risk of household over-indebtedness by creating legal procedures for the resolution of consumer insolvencies: consumer bankruptcy laws. The spread of consumer bankruptcy law has been particularly pronounced in Europe, where since the 1980s almost all countries have adopted bankruptcy laws for non-business individuals. This ‘seismic legislative activity’ alone calls for a comparative study of consumer insolvency proceedings in Europe. However, insolvency law for natural persons has not only expanded in territorial terms; it has also undergone a transformation of its basic aims and characteristics. While in the past the main objectives of personal bankruptcy law were the punishment of defaulting debtors and the (fair) distribution of an insolvent debtor’s assets among his or her creditors, the primary aim of present-day consumer bankruptcy regimes is the provision of a financial ‘fresh start’ for honest insolvent individuals by means of a discharge of debts (i.e., the legal cancellation of the debtor’s responsibility for the payment of specified types of debts). In order to account for this historical transformation of personal bankruptcy law, I have suggested incorporating the debt discharge and the possibility of a voluntary petition (i.e., debtor-initiated proceedings) into a contemporary definition of consumer bankruptcy.