While some may claim that the European debt crisis is over, many
European legislative instruments directed at crisis management in
the banking sector, including Banking Union legislation, are still
pending enactment. These legislative instruments, once enacted,
will bring about an unprecedented harmonization of European bank
insolvency law. Also, a multitude of legal disputes following
the nationalization of SNS Reaal, the fourth largest bank in the
Netherlands, in February 2013, are still unresolved.
On 23 May 2013, the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law at Leiden
Law School and the Netherlands Association for Comparative and
International Insolvency Law (NACIIL) organized a conference
on the highly topical theme of recovery and resolution of credit
institutions and investment firms. The key question to which
answers were sought during this conference was: 'Which rules
should govern banks in difficulties?' This question has also been
the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law's research theme for the past
two years.
The Hazelhoff Financial Law Series intends to deepen and further
the debate on topical issues of financial law. It represents key results
of the work of the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law at Leiden Law
School. We understand financial law to encompass, inter alia, the
legal aspects of financial supervision, the organization, functioning
and regulation of financial markets, securities and finance transactions,
market abuse, payments and payment systems, duties of
care in the banking sector and bank insolvency. Another key
characteristic of the work of the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law
is our focus on the international dimension of financial law. Should
you share our enthusiasm in any of these areas of the law, we are
confident that you will find much of interest in the present volume.