News and Events
JCOERE attends Insolvency Law Moot in Singapore
Dr Jennifer L. L. Gant, crossed the globe to arrive in Singapore on 28th March 2019 for a series of events centred around global insolvency and corporate restructuring law and practice, including the Ian Fletcher International Insolvency Law Moot, the INSOL International Academics Colloquium and a workshop on Research and Teaching in Insolvency Law at the National University of Singapore.
The Ian Fletcher International Insolvency Law Moot organised by INSOL International, Queensland University of Technology, and took place on 29th and 30th March, to which Jennifer was invited to be a judge in the preliminary rounds. Singapore Management University hosted teams from all over the world while the judging panels heard them argue a hypothetical cross-border insolvency law case dealing with many current and key issues of the day. Of interest for the JCOERE project was one of the grounds for appeal in the moot problem regarding the viability of court to court communication taking place between the two litigating parties. The quality of the teams was extraordinary. The team taking home the trophy for 2019 was the National Law Institute University (Bhopal), India.
The INSOL International Academics Colloquium took place on 1st and 2nd of April at the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel and conference centre with its famed “infinity pool” on the roof. Around 70 delegates attended the two-day conference, hearing a variety of insolvency-related presentations from regional developments, to debates about fundamental principles and terminological understanding. Of note to the JCOERE project were several presentations focussing on preventive restructuring both in Europe considering the Preventive Restructuring Directive, as well as non-European perspectives. On the second day, there were also two presentations on court cooperation in cases of cross-border insolvency, which raised several issues common to the JCOERE Project.
On the second day of the Colloquium, Jennifer was also given the opportunity to present on the JCOERE project, garnering interest and discussion from European as well as delegates from other jurisdictions.
The final day of activity was a workshop on Research and Teaching in Insolvency Law at the National University of Singapore. Jennifer sat on a panel bookended by a Finnish academic presenting on issues of work-life-research balance as a lecturing academic and a Singaporean academic presenting on experience in empirical insolvency law research. Jennifer presented on her research experience using the Comparative Law Methodology in a presentation entitled “The Versatility of the Comparative Legal Methodology: Employees in Insolvent Business Transfers; Judicial Co-Operation; and the New Preventive Restructuring Directive”. The presentation traced Jennifer’s use of this methodology starting with her PhD work, taking the audience from PhD to post-PhD publications, to her current work on JCOERE and beyond. This presentation gave her the opportunity to give more detail on the JCOERE project and its methodology to an audience of hardcore insolvency researchers, which led to in-depth discussions on the value of the project as well as interest expressed in its progress and the potential involvement of the contacts made.
Overall, Jennifer’s trip to Singapore was a public relations boon for the JCOERE project with many potentially useful contacts made as well as dissemination of information about the project to a global audience of insolvency and restructuring academics, practitioners, and judges.