Insolvency and Restructuring

Articles - Lawyers occasionally wonder how the law ended up as it is. We had that experience after the Dutch Supreme Court’s decision of 1 July 2022 (Rabobank/Ten Berge q.q.; ECLI:NL:HR:2022:984), regarding the possibility or impossibility of pledging a claim. The Supreme Court decided that claims that have been made non-transferable under property law in a contractual agreement between a creditor and a debtor, cannot be pledged either.

Short Reads - Wat gebeurt er als werkgevers die gebruikmaken van de NOW failliet gaan? Wat kunnen de curator en het UWV doen? En wat gaat er gebeuren als de overheid de NOW afbouwt of stopt? In de vierde en tevens laatste aflevering van een podcastserie over de NOW geven advocaat bestuursrecht Sandra Putting en Job van Hooff gespecialiseerd in het insolventierecht antwoord op deze en andere vragen over de NOW en de faillissementen.

Short Reads - In Dutch legal practice, contracting parties often agree on provisions including an arrangement in which they waive their right to invoke the nullity of the contract in question. By doing so, the parties intend to exclude an eventual contractual annulment arising from error, duress, fraud or undue influence.

Articles - To mark the publication’s 25th anniversary, the editors of the Dutch Journal for Insolvency Law have invited Gertjan Boekraad to author an article on how the issue of bankruptcy settlement has developed in legal doctrine over the past quarter of a century. He discusses questions including: what are estate debts, how can they be paid in advance, and what if the assets do not completely cover the estate debts? 

Inside Stibbe - Our Brussels office is honoured to have won four awards at the annual Benchmark Litigation Europe Awards ceremony last night. These awards celebrate the leading litigators and most impactful disputes across Europe.

Short Reads - Het bonus- en dividendverbod is een veelbesproken onderdeel van de Tijdelijke noodmaatregel overbrugging voor behoud van werkgelegenheid ("NOW").

Short Reads - The Act on confirmation of private restructuring plans (Wet homologatie onderhands akkoord) – which introduces a framework allowing debtors to restructure their debts outside formal insolvency proceedings (the “Dutch Scheme“) – was adopted by the Dutch Senate on 6 October 2020 and will enter into force on 1 January 2021. In previous blogs we have summarised when the Dutch Scheme can be used, who can make use of the initiative, and what action is required.

Short Reads - Earlier this year, the District Court in The Hague ruled that the Dutch State is liable vis-à-vis the victims and surviving relatives of a 1992 plane crash in Faro, Portugal. The State was found liable because it is responsible for the information provided by the Dutch Aviation Safety Board (a government agency) to the victims and surviving relatives. This information, on the causes of the crash was deemed by the court to be incorrect and incomplete.