We invite you to read the book Social and Economic Aspects of Court and Out-of-Court Restructuring, published by Lazarski University Press (2025).

DOI 10.26399/978-83-66723-81-8

The book is the result of a debate that took place at an international conference ‘The Social and Economic Aspects of Court and Out-of-Court Restructuring’ on 23 May 2024. The conference was organised by Lazarski University in Warsaw (Faculty of Law and Administration) in cooperation with Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Faculty of Law and Administration) and the Institute of Justice in Warsaw. It was initiated by academics associated with the Institute of Insolvency, Restructuring, and Insolvency Research at Lazarski University in Warsaw, Poland. The conference provided an opportunity to present the results of research conducted at various European research centres focused on insolvency law. Researchers from Norway, Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Slovenia presented papers. 

Law is a social phenomenon whose form and effectiveness are determined by the socio-economic conditions of the society in which it is applied. For this reason, similar legal institutions may be effective and efficient in certain jurisdictions while failing to attract interest in others. From a cognitive perspective, it is crucial to examine why certain legal solutions prove effective in some societies but not in others. The search for an answer to this question is one of the main objectives of this book. Presenting research findings on court and out-of-court restructuring is of great social importance, as the global economy continues to grapple with the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. 

In Poland, a significant increase in the number of pre-litigation restructuring cases occurred following the entry into force of the Act of 19 June 2020 on the simplified procedure for the approval of arrangements in connection with COVID-19 (i.e. Journal of Laws of 2022, item 2141), which introduced simplified restructuring proceedings. Subsequently, some provisions of this law were incorporated into the Restructuring Law. This means that what was originally an ad hoc and temporary measure has become a permanent part of the Polish legal system. The phenomenon of pre-litigation restructuring has not yet been fully examined in Poland, both from legal and socio-economic perspectives. From a cognitive standpoint, it is important to analyse the circumstances influencing the choice of this restructuring method and the effects of such a decision on the socio-economic environment.

The emphasis in this book is not only on describing what the law looks like (law-in-books) but, more importantly, on how the law operates in practice (law-in-action). For this reason, the work presents the practical aspects of restructuring and insolvency proceedings in different countries, taking into account the legal culture of each jurisdiction.