Introduction

Date

On 25 June 2002, the Federal Government announced that the next phase of the Government's Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (CLERP) would be a review of cross-border insolvency law, including possible enactment of an international Model Law developed by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). The review would be called CLERP 8.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, Senator the Hon Ian Campbell, said that global economic integration and technological change have created both opportunities and new risks for Australian businesses. The adoption of efficient cross-border insolvency laws is an important aspect of our efforts to build a sounder international framework to address those risks.

The purpose of this paper is to seek comments on the possible enactment by Australia of the UNCITRAL Model Law on cross-border insolvency ('the Model Law').