Wed 26 February 2020
By Jayne He
Member of the China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre Associate Professor Xiaochuan Weng published a chapter in the area of bankruptcy in the Tsinghua Financial Law Review (Vol. 2, No.2, 2018), which has been published in May 2019 by the Law Press China.
The chapter is a Chinese translation of “States of Bankruptcy”, a research paper authored by David A. Skeel, Jr., an S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Pennsylvania in the US. The article was originally published in the Vol.79 (2012) of The University of Chicago Law Review.
“The paper ‘State of Bankruptcy’ is one of the most significant works on government debt solutions in the US,” according to Associate Professor Weng. The paper assessed the question of “should Congress provide a bankruptcy option for states, or would bankruptcy be a mistake?” utilising theoretical, empirical, and historical tools and reached several “surprising” conclusions.
The paper may provide instructive insights to the Chinese scholars and policymakers among raising concerns over the increasing local government debts.
“In recent year, China has been suffering from high local government debt which raises great concerns of the Chinese legislature and central government.” Associate Professor Weng said, “Given the fact that there is no systematic local debt solution in China, the paper offers a very important reference for the Chinese policymakers to find a viable path to regulate local debts.”
This Chinese translation is co-authored by Associate Professor Weng and Rubing Ni of the Bank of Shanghai, and it has been published in the Tsinghua Financial Law Review (Vol. 2, No. 2, 2018) co-edited by Professor Ciyun Zhu and Associate Professor Zhaohui Shen from Tsinghua University School of Law.