Debt's Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in America

Bankruptcy in America, in stark contrast to its status in most other countries, typically signifies not a debtor's last gasp but an opportunity to catch one's breath and recoup. Why has the nation's legal system evolved to allow both corporate and individual debtors greater control over their fate than imaginable elsewhere??;pProbing the political dynamics behind this question, David Skeel provides a complete account of the remarkable journey American bankruptcy law has taken from its beginnings in 1800, when Congress lifted the country's first bankruptcy code right out of English law, to the present day. Skeel shows that the confluence of three forces that emerged over many years - an organized creditor lobby, pro-debtor ideological currents, and an increasinly powerful bankruptcy bar - explains the distinctive contours of American bankruptcy law. Their interplay, he argues, has seen efforts to legislate bankruptcy become a compelling battle royale between bankers and lawyers - one in which the bankers recently seem to have gained the upper hand. Skeel demonstrates, for example, that a fiercely divided bankruptcy commission and the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress have yielded t