Bankruptcy A
Fall term, Block C
M,T,W 10:15 AM - 11:35 AM
Professor Elizabeth Warren
4 classroom credits LAW-31400A
This course covers the federal Bankruptcy Code and explores the critical role it plays in a credit economy. The social and economic implication of a law of forgiveness will be the central feature of this course.
This is the survey course covering the broadest range of issues in cases that range from personal bankruptcies to the failure of multinational corporations.
The course is taught exclusively from problems. The problems are designed to examine the elements of the statutes, the transactional implications of the formal laws, and the policy issues that inhere in the bankruptcy system. Ethical problems are woven throughout the course. The problem approach is based on situations that attorneys, clients, legislators, and judges encounter. It provides the context for a grounded discussion of the broader social implications of debt. The course will provide some commercial background, and it will cover the available empirical evidence about the bankruptcy system.
Warren and Westbrook, The Law of Debtors and Creditors, (Little, Brown, 5th ed. 2005); Warren, Statutory Supplement (Aspen, 2008).