Insolvency procedures and assets liquidation in Italy and the UK

The study explores the different approaches of Italian and the United Kingdom (UK) law on the topic of assets liquidation in insolvency procedures. In particular, it aims at investigating the reasons of this different approach, which could be found, in author’s opinion, in the peculiar legislative philosophy that have inspired, on the one hand, Italian law reform process, essentially devoted to the preservation of the business of the firm even where subject to the insolvency procedure, as far as possible, and, on the other hand, the UK insolvency law, rather pointed towards the expulsion from the market of the firm undergoing the insolvency procedure, because of its inefficiency, for the benefit of the economic system as a whole. The current divergence of legislative philosophy above outlined can also be ascribed, in particular, to the influence of European Union (EU) law, which is evidently no longer applicable to UK law, unlike Italian law. Nonetheless, the evolution of EU legal systems continues to play an important role, also for non-EU countries, due to the natural “economic competition” between legal systems that insolvency law typically produces at the international level, as clearly evidenced by the well-known phenomenon of forum shopping. Therefore, the author hopes that this study could contribute to the development of comparative academic debate, not only limited to the legal systems herein considered but potentially involving also other non-EU legal systems, so as to assess the impact of EU law and its implementation — including possibly voluntary implementation — at the national level on the international stage.