Document Type
Article
Publication Title
ABI Law Review
Publication Date
2001
Volume
9
First Page
3
Abstract
(Excerpt)
The articles in this symposium issue of the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review attempt to analyze some of the major effects that the 1999 revision of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code will have on bankruptcy law and bankruptcy practice. It is a hazardous activity to attempt to predict in advance the impact of new legislation. That problem is exacerbated when the new law is as extensive and complicated as the revised Article 9. At this early pre-effective date stage, only the more obvious intersections between Article 9 and the bankruptcy laws are easy to anticipate and examine. No doubt, many other important effects will become apparent as the Act becomes effective and other areas of intersection become the focus of litigation and of academic inquiry.
Since the federal bankruptcy law generally defers to non-bankruptcy law to define the legal rights of the parties in interest in a bankruptcy proceeding, any significant change in an important area of substantive state law is likely to have bankruptcy implications. However, the bankruptcy implications of the current revision of Article 9 are particularly significant because Article 9 defines the relative rights in the estate's personal property of the most significant players in many bankruptcy cases - the secured and unsecured creditors. Thus, changes in Article 9 can go to the heart of the bankruptcy and reorganization process.
The question examined in this piece and the corresponding article by Professors Steven L. Harris and Charles W. Mooney, Jr. is whether the changes incorporated in the Article 9 revisions are contrary to bankruptcy law and policy. It is the thesis of this article that they are.
Comments
Reprinted with permission of the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review. Originally published at 9 AM. BANKR. INST. L. REV. 3 (2001).