Prestigious International Insolvency Prize for Dual LLM Student

Jente Dengler, a graduate from the Nottingham and Nijmegen Dual LLM Insolvency Law programme, has recently been awarded the Gold Medal in the competition for the International Insolvency Institute’s 2019 Prize in International Insolvency Studies. The International Insolvency Institute (III) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing and promoting insolvency in the international field. Its primary objectives include improving international co-operation in the insolvency area and achieving greater co-ordination among nations in multinational business reorganizations and restructurings. Membership of III, which is by invitation-only, is drawn from the most senior and respected insolvency practitioners, judges and academics at the global level.

Jente’s winning paper, titled: “Debt restructuring in the UK and Spain: is the grass still greener on the other side”, derives from research for his dissertation project on the Dual LLM, for which he was awarded a cum laude (distinction). Jente’s project, jointly supervised by Professor Rebecca Parry (NTU) and Anne Mennens (RUN), was a comparative assessment of the English scheme of arrangement and the new Spanish restructuring framework. Jente describes how quite a few Spanish companies in financial distress have restructured their debts via the English scheme of arrangement in order to avoid insolvency. The Spanish legislator has recently revised the Ley Concursal in order to provide for a Spanish equivalent of the scheme of arrangement. In his paper, Jente analyses to what extent Spanish companies in financial distress will in spite of these revisions (post-Brexit) still be eager to use the English restructuring tool to overcome financial difficulties.

In addition to his prize, Jente will be invited to attend III’s Nineteenth Annual International Insolvency Conference in Barcelona on June 17-18, 2019 and will also be nominated to Class VIII of the III’s “NextGen Leadership Program”, a programme established in 2012 to create an informative and valuable environment for younger professionals and academics to network with established members of III.

The Centre for Business and Insolvency Law at Nottingham Law School and the Radboud University Business Law Research Centre wish to congratulate Jente on this prestigious award, which is a matter of immense pride for both Law Schools.