The Insolvency Office Holder-project (“IOH Project”) is an initiative of Leiden Law School, initiated in 2012 and commissioned by INSOL Europe. It researches (the possibilities for) the development of a set of principles and best practices for insolvency office holders by comparing multilateral treaties and soft law recommendations and national legislation within Europe. It can, therefore, be considered as a next step in the possible harmonization of insolvency laws within the European Union.

The outcome of the research, study and discussion will be a set of principles and best practices, which will have multiple purposes. They can, first of all, serve as a benchmark for insolvency actors. As such, they can be used by IOHs, professional insolvency practitioners’ associations, judges and other public authorities to evaluate their professional conduct.

Furthermore, the principles and best practices can be used by legislators to introduce, assess or improve existing legislation with respect to IOHs. Thirdly, it is to be expected that the principles and best practices might increase public confidence in IOHs, their work quality, and in the way they are monitored and supervised. Lastly, they could play a significant role in the debate and determination of possible future rules for IOHs on a European level.

Output

The output of the project consists of three reports:

• Report I contains a framework and a model;
• Report II contains an analysis of the rules for IOHs in a number of European countries;
• Report III will contain the Principles and Best Practices.

A group of some twenty experts, from all over Europe, will be or have been requested to act in the capacity of an academic Advisory Committee and a project Review & Advisory Group. They are to review the outcome of several studies, before they are presented to INSOL Europe. The draft of the second report is presently under review. The Principles and Best Practices will be presented in the annual conference of INSOL Europe in Istanbul in October 2014.

Materials

You can download the following documents relating to the IOH project:

• Report I
• Report II
• Report III
• Draft INSOL Europe Statement of Principles and Guidelines for Insolvency Office Holders in Europe

Contact

This project is coordinated by Leiden Law School professor Jan Adriaanse and professor Iris Wuisman, and directed by dr. Bernard Santen. The reporters can be contacted via ioh@law.leidenuniv.nl.