Third-Party Releases in Modern Insolvency Law: efficient claim resolution or obscure bypass?

Can insolvency law offer debt relief to third parties that are not themselves subject to insolvency proceedings? If so, where should insolvency law draw the line? The Netherlands Association for Comparative and International Insolvency Law (NACIIL) organized a conference on third-party releases. This article discusses the main contributions from the United States, United Kingdom and Netherlands, with a focus on the unique challenges presented by the recent migration in the U.S. of mass tort litigation into Chapter 11 bankruptcies. To ensure close adherence to the speakers’ presentations, citations of their work or draft reports are added where possible.