Institute’s Guidelines for Court-to-Court Communications Gain International Approval

The Guidelines for Court-to-Court Communications in Cross-Border Cases that were developed as part of the Institute’s Transnational Insolvency Project and given final approval along with the rest of that project in May of 2000 have recently been endorsed by both the International Insolvency Institute at its 2002 Annual Conference at Fordham University in New York City and by the Insolvency Institute of Canada at the Institute’s midyear meeting in Toronto. The Canadian group specifically recommended their utilization by Canadian courts both in transnational cases and in domestic cases involving the courts of more than one Province. The Guidelines, for which Reporter E. Bruce Leonard of Toronto served as the primary drafter, have already been cited and applied in a number of leading Canadian transnational insolvency cases and are considered to be suitable for possible adaptation in noninsolvency cases as well. Their text has been translated into a number of languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Korean, and additional translations are in progress.

Publication of the entire Transnational Insolvency Project in its official form is anticipated early in 2003. Publication had to be delayed because the enactment of a new, progressive Bankruptcy Code in Mexico on the eve of the project’s final approval by the Institute required the Mexican portion of the work to be completely rewritten. The complete work will consist of four separate volumes, one consisting of Principles of Cooperation in Transnational Insolvency Cases Involving the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and three volumes, each devoted to description and analysis of the bankruptcy system and bankruptcy practice in one of the three NAFTA countries.