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Recent Development in Recognition of and Assistance to Foreign Insolvency Representatives Under the Hong Kong Common Law
Author(s) -
Li Xiaolin,
Tu Guangjian
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international insolvency review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.125
H-Index - 7
eISSN - 1099-1107
pISSN - 1180-0518
DOI - 10.1002/iir.1295
Subject(s) - insolvency , creditor , law , statute , common law , constructive trust , high court , business , political science , finance , debt
Although Hong Kong has neither enacted nor launched any plan to enact a statute addressing cooperation and assistance on cross‐border insolvency matters, recently, a unique Hong Kong approach dealing with recognition and assistance in cross‐border insolvency is gradually forming under common law. Thanks to the efforts made by the Companies Court of the Hong Kong High Court, insolvency representatives appointed in the place of incorporation of the debtors may, firstly, be accorded a certain degree of automatic recognition and cooperation based on traditional private international law rules without going through a recognition procedure and, secondly, be recognized and granted active assistance under principle of universalism at common law. With regard to the limits of this common law power, the court has referred to but not strictly followed the British Privy Council's decision in Singularis Holdings Limited v. PricewaterhouseCoopers ( Singularis ) and instead followed the previous approach in Cambridge Gas Transport Corp v. Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (of Navigator Holdings PLC and others) ( Cambridge Gas ). The Companies Court also attempted to simplify and facilitate the application and grant of this common law recognition and assistance through a series of innovations. Copyright © 2018 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.