Bescheiden toezichter of bemiddelaar? De rol van de rechter in reorganisatie en faillissement vanuit rechtshistorisch perspectief

According to Belgian law, judges have very limited competences in insolvency trials. This article demonstrates that this is a remnant of the past. In the nineteenth century, the prevailing paradigm was that decisions in bankruptcy cases had to be taken by the creditors. It is argued that with the shift towards corporate rescue, this conception is out-dated. For inspiration, one can look at the legal regimes that were in force in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In these periods, courts had an active agenda of seeking compositions between the debtor and his creditors.