On the evening of September 25, an Open Lecture giving an "Introduction to French Bankruptcy Law" was held in Room 305 of the Mingfa Building, on the Changping Campus of the China University of Political Science and Law.

At the invitation of the China-EU School of Law, Professor François-Xavier Lucas, Director of the Institute of Justice of Paris 1 University and Director of the Institute of Bankruptcy Law of the Sorbonne Law School Research Center, gave the lecture. Professor François-Xavier Lucas has been teaching company law and bankruptcy law at Sorbonne Law School since 2004, offering a master's degree course in "Management and Liquidation of Troubled Companies" at Sorbonne Law School, and concurrently serving as the person in charge of the master's degree in business law and tax law at the Euro-Mediterranean University of Fes and the master's degree in business law and tax law in France-Morocco. Zhao Tianshu, a teacher from the China-EU School of Law, presided over the lecture, with Professor Chong Lin, an associate professor of Shandong University of Political Science and Law, who received his doctorate from Paris II University, gave comments.

The lecture began at 6 p.m. Professor Franois-Xavier Lucas started with the legislative history of French bankruptcy of law, introducing two kinds of techniques for restructuring troubled companies, one is a contract-based amicable scheme, the other is a judicial procedure, also called collective proceedings. Among them, the amicable scheme procedure includes conciliation and a special procedure, and the collective proceedings includes bankruptcy protection, reorganization and liquidation.

Professor François-Xavier Lucas focused on collective proceedings. He pointed out that in the collective proceedings, the company needs to continue its business activities under the guidance of one or more judicial clients designated by the court. It is worth mentioning that collective proceedings give priority to creditors who lend “new money”, that is, they can realize their claims according to the principle of payment at maturity. If the debt is due and the creditor has not been paid off, the creditor's right will have priority in the future. The professor also gave a detailed introduction to the bankruptcy protection scheme. For the adoption of the bankruptcy protection scheme, the French bankruptcy law stipulates two situations on whether to set up a creditor committee. One is if there is no creditor committee, the consent of all creditors is required. The other is to set up a creditor committee, which must be approved by creditors representing more than two thirds of the creditor's rights in the committee.

Later, Professor Chong Lin expressed his views on Professor Francois-Xavier Lucas's speech. First, he summarized the French bankruptcy law system, which Professor Francois-Xavier Lucas had presented. Then, comparing the French with the Chinese bankruptcy law systems, he commented on some provisions of Chinese bankruptcy law. He also included some history of Chinese bankruptcy law. In addition, Professor Chong Lin proposed a question to the students: Whether or not the bankruptcy reorganization scheme needs the consent of each creditor? Is there any experience to learn from the French bankruptcy law system?

Finally, Teacher Zhao Tianshu made a concluding speech. The lecture came to an end with the students' strong applause. The Open Lecture has set up a good platform for students to contact famous teachers and broaden their international vision. After the lecture, Professor Francois-Xavier Lucas had a friendly talk with the students and took some photos.

Written：Mao Chenyang、Zhao Yuting（CESL double master of 2019 intake）

Photo:Zhao Yuting（CESL double master of 2019 intake）