Document Type

Article

Disciplines

5.2 ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS, Business and Management., 5.5 LAW

Publication Details

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14735970.2023.2226802

John Quinn & Philip Gavin (2023) The creditor duty post Sequana: lessons for legislative reform, Journal of Corporate Law Studies,

DOI: 10.1080/14735970.2023.2226802

Abstract

UK common law recognises that directors owe a fiduciary duty to consider creditors' interests when a company is insolvent or in financial difficulty. However, the scope of this duty remains unclear, particularly the degree of financial difficulty necessary for it to arise. In 2022, in BTI v Sequana, the Supreme Court did little to resolve these uncertainties, retaining a context first approach, where the duty's triggering point is based on the facts and the risk borne by creditors in the specific case. In contrast, Ireland codified its creditor duty in 2022, setting out a series of legislatively defined financial situations where the duty applies and what the duty entails. This article argues that while a search for complete doctrinal certainty in this area is misguided, a degree of certainty over and above the position in Sequana can be achieved and that Ireland's codification offers valuable lessons for future UK reform.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/14735970.2023.2226802

Funder

This research received no external funding

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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