The paper is titled “A Principled Approach towards the Disclaimer of Environmental Liabilities: Lessons from Europe (and the Rest of the World)”.

Dr Eugenio Vaccari (Senior Lecturer in Law, Royal Holloway, University of London) and Dr Dr David C Ehmke (Willkie, Farr & Gallagher LLP) are pleased to announce that their proposal for a paper titled “A Principled Approach towards the Disclaimer of Environmental Liabilities: Lessons from Europe (and the Rest of the World)” has been accepted by the organisers of the 2023 INSOL Europe Academic Forum Annual Conference. 

The treatment of environmental claims in insolvency is a particularly controversial topic, as the goals of maximising the return to creditors and giving debtors a second chance conflicts with the public policy duty to protect the environment. While environmental law advances public policy goals and avoids externalisation of costs, insolvency law promotes a mixed private-public agenda. Nevertheless, a principled insolvency regime shall avoid to the highest possible extent market distortions and the externalisation of business failures to other businesses and the society at large.

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the principles governing English, German and European insolvency and environmental law to offer a principled approach for the use of disclaimer powers and the ranking of (environmental) claims in insolvency.