Insolvency Law Reforms in Asian Developing Countries: An Epitome of Legal Transplants (SpringerBriefs in Economics)

This book examines the outcomes of the economic law reforms in Asian developing countries, guided by the leading international development financiers such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Included is a particular focus on the recent “insolvency law” reforms in the Asian emerging economies, such as Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. Such legal reforms are the results of the “transplant” of the model law provided by these donor agencies, a law that was created in the post-Asian Currency Crisis in the 1990s. This book therefore examines the outcomes of three decades of donor-guided legal reforms. Appropriately, it applies not only the static approach to the legal texts but also an empirical methodology through interview surveys of the corporate and financial sectors. Following the introduction in Chapter I, Chapter II reviews the basic theories and presents the methodological framework. Chapter III then analyzes the contents of insolvency law reforms in the major target countries, namely, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. Chapter IV provides a closer investigation into the design choices of Myanmar’s 2020 Insolvency Law as a typical example of the law reform involving the inter-donor conflict of law models between the Asian Development Bank and Japan’s official development assistance project. Lastly, Chapter V applies an empirical approach to the functioning of insolvency law, through international collaboration for interview surveys with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their financiers. Contents 6 About the Author 8 1 Introduction of Research Framework 9 1.1 Purpose: Analyzing the Validity of the Insolvency Law Model 9 1.2 Overview of Insolvency Law Theories and Contexts 13 1.2.1 Policy Conflict of Insolvency Law 13 1.2.2 Donors’ Model Law Designed for Economic Crises 15 1.2.3 Socialist Economic Reforms in Asia 16 1.3 Methodological Framework 17 1.3.1 Preceding Works 17 1.3.2 Hypothetical Framework for a Comparative Approach 19 1.3.3 Empirical Approach 24 1.3.4 Socialist Economic Reforms 25 2 Insolvency Law Reforms in the Asian Emerging Economies 28 2.1 Vietnam 28 2.1.1 Legislative Background 28 2.1.2 Design Features 30 2.1.3 Policy Conflicts in Insolvency Law Reform 32 2.2 Laos 36 2.2.1 Legislative Background 36 2.2.2 Design Features 36 2.2.3 Policy Conflicts in Insolvency Law Reform 40 2.3 Myanmar 41 2.3.1 Legislative Background 41 2.3.2 Design Features 44 2.3.3 Policy Conflicts in Insolvency Law Reform 46 2.4 Discussion 49 3 Model Conflict Between the Donors: Case of Myanmar 52 3.1 Introduction 52 3.2 Colonial Insolvency Regime in Present Time 55 3.3 Corporate Insolvency in Practice 56 3.4 Read-Through of the 2020 Insolvency Law 58 3.5 Alternative Approach of JICA Draft 63 3.6 Discussion 68 4 Empirical Approach to the Pandemic-Based Crisis 69 4.1 Introduction 69 4.2 Practice of SME Finance and Insolvency Law Under the Pandemic 71 4.2.1 Japan 71 4.2.2 Korea 73 4.2.3 Vietnam 74 4.2.4 Myanmar 75 4.3 Discussion 76 5 Conclusion 78 Bibliography 81