CERIL

Introduction

Director’s liability is a theme that arises in many insolvency proceeding whereby the behaviour of the director in the twilight zone is assessed in hindsight, and where proceedings against the director may end up in severe liability and exposure to cover losses with one’s personal assets. Directors require a practical guidance (grounded in law) when rescuing businesses and when accounting for the interest of stakeholders where viability of a business is at stake. As opposed to liquidation insolvency proceedings, the opening of workouts or preventive proceedings is often based on the right and not an obligation of a director to open legal proceedings and thus the grounds of director’s liability are less clear cut than when dealing with pure insolvency situations. The current trend in legislations based on a ban to trade whenever the business is insolvent or to act with due diligence of a professional or to rely on a business judgement rules (to mention few tests) judged ex-post requires re-thinking and modulations so that fair and appropriate rules and practices may be applied in evaluating director’s performance in the twilight zone.

Working Party 1 aims at providing practical reports in the field of director’s liability to assist law and policy makers as well as courts and academics to develop solutions and best practices in this field.

Chairs

Michal Barlowski
Joeri Vananroye

Current Projects

• Study on the director's duties in COVID-19 times
  Reporters: Mr Michal Barlowski and Prof. Joeri Vananroye
  

Conferees part of