SIRC Project: The UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law

The UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law (the Guide) was a follow on project to the Model Law. The consensus result of four and one-half years of work by UNCITRAL Working Group V is a comprehensive work of real practical value. The Guide covers all aspects of formal bankruptcy and reorganization proceedings as well as out of court mechanisms for restructuring debt.

The Section can be justly proud to have played an integral role in the development and drafting of the Guide. Section members were active from the 1999 organizational session on through to the adoption of the Guide by the Commission in June of 2004. The IBA sponsored the Colloquium in 2000 where Section members chaired the lead off panel presentation. Section members served on the expert drafting team that authored the original text presented at the first formal session of the Working Group and thereafter, between sessions, assisted the Secretariat in revising the text to reflect decisions taken by the Working Group. The Section staffed each semi-annual Working Group session with at least two members. During June 2004, Section members worked down to the wire at the Commission meeting to finalize the Guide for adoption by the Commission and presentation to the General Assembly. In December 2004, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the text of the Guide.

In May of 2005, the Section sponsored a resolution to endorse the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law which was approved by the LPD Council and the full IBA Council in Lisbon.

The Guide is already being used in several nations’ legislative reform efforts, and it now forms part of a unified standard to be used by the World Bank in carrying out assessments under the joint IMF-World Bank programme to evaluate the financial sectors of client nations. Click here for the full text of the Guide.