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GAZETTE
DECEMBER 1989
one time or another. Even if they are
implemented, their effectiveness
may still be limited by the more
fundamental problems in Irish land
law such as the fact that the
average delay for registering the
transfer of part of the lands in a folio
is still over a year!
Eric Brunker
THE LAW AND PRACTICE OF
ADMINISTRAT IVE
RECEIVERSHIP AND
ASSOCIATED REMEDIES BY
LANGE AND HARTWIG
Until the passing of the UK
Insolvency Act 1985 the Laws in
Ireland and the UK applicable to
Receiverships and Liquidations were
broadly similar. The 1985 and 1986
Insolvency Acts introduced a new
creature at Law, the much heralded
administrator, whose task was
envisaged to be the rescue of
insolvent companies and the en-
hancement of realisations if
liquidation should ensue. Less
publicised but equally important for
the commercial community are the
changes introduced by that legisla-
tion in relation to the law of
Receivership generally. Under the
Insolvency Act 1986, a Receiver
appointed on foot of a floating
charge over all or substantially all of
the assets of a company is renamed
"an Administrative Receiver".
This text is not an analysis of the
Law of Administrative Receivership.
Rather it compares and contrasts
the function and powers of a Re-
ceiver, an Administrative Receiver
and an Administrator under UK Law.
Following a brief note on historical
background, the first chapter is
devoted to alternative procedures
for rescuing and re-organising
companies. The authors conclude
that the options other than
Receivership and Administration are
not "particularly effective". The
main body of the book is devoted to
Receivers, both administrative and
otherwise, followed by a short
chapter on Administration. The
book includes the full text of the
amended Insolvency Rules.
As with many texts dealing with
substantial new legislation, it
suffers from a tendency to para-
phrase the legislation. This is
obvious from large numbers of the
foot notes, which refer to the
relevant sections of the Insolvency
Act 1986.
Unfortunately the authors deal
mainly with the procedures and
routine areas with which experi-
enced practitioners are accustomed
to dealing but do not examine the
many problems of practice. Three
and a half pages are devoted to a
discussion of the law of Set-off. The
authors enunciate at length the
principle that pre-and post-
receivership debts cannot be set off
but the problem of setting off
different types of claims, quantified
and unquantified, preferential and
non-preferential, is not discussed
and even the important decision in
In re. Unit 2 Windows
(In
Liquidation)
[1985] 3AIIER 647 is
omitted.
Furthermore, there is little critical
analysis of the legislation or com-
mentary on difficulties which may
arise either as a result of the
legislation or in the absence of
provisions. For example where an
administrator is appointed by the
Court, a Debenture holder has a
period of five days within which to
exercise his right to appoint an
Administrative Receiver. The
authors do not comment on how a
Court may be expected to view
timing difficulties nor whether a
practice has grown up of specifying
in the order the time at which it was
made. The absence of such
consideration is surprising in view of
the fact that the authors note that
it is now the practice for Debenture
holders to note the time of
appointment of an Administrative
Receiver
on the deed of
appointment when executed.
Large areas of the book deal with
substantial new English legislation,
the irrelevance of which for the Irish
practitioner is readily under-
standable and to be expected.
However, the remaining sections
cannot be so vindicated.
Whilst these sections are super-
ficially concerned with the common
underlying principles of the law of
Receivership, and therefore of
potential application to Irish law, the
authors fail to provide any
challenging analysis of the complex
issues of law and practice.
•
Jane Marshall
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