Harmonising Transaction Avoidance inside and outside Corporate Insolvency Law in the European Union

The thesis addresses the topic of the harmonisation of transaction avoidance in the European Union (EU). In the light of the unsatisfactory transaction avoidance regimes in cross-border scenarios as provided by the European Insolvency Regulation recast and other EU regulations, this study aims to contribute to the formulation of harmonised avoidance rules for the EU. In particular, this study analyses the issues concerning the avoidance powers in insolvency proceedings and the transaction avoidance claims available in private law.
The study compares the avoidance actions within and outside insolvency proceedings in selected member states: England, Germany, and Italy. The work is organised into three parts. The first part provides a theoretical background to the thesis and it is organised into two chapters. After the introduction, the first chapter supplies the research with the definition of ‘harmonisation’ and ‘transaction avoidance’ in insolvency law and private law. Chapter three analyses the current EU regulations on the topic. It explains the problems emerging in the Private International Law approach adopted at the EU level and it illustrates the reasons why the current EU system of transaction avoidance is unsatisfactory.
The second part of the thesis analyses three legal systems: England, Germany, and Italy. This section is organised into three chapters; each chapter analyses the avoidance regimes adopted in each national legal system. Every chapter considers both insolvency and private law claims and it analyses how they interact within the national legal system.
Finally, the third part seeks to provide a solution to the problems illustrated in the second chapter. This part is divided into two chapters. One chapter provides a comparative analysis of the national legal systems. The last chapter designs guidelines for the further harmonisation of the transaction avoidance claims inside and outside insolvency law at the EU level, in order to improve the EU Insolvency system and strengthen the framework for credit enforcement across EU.