ORIGIN AND LEGAL REGULATION OF THE SECOND CHANCE FOR ENTREPRENEURS IN THE EU
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Abstract
In the history of human civilization, there has always been the problem of over-indebtedness and personal bankruptcy, as well as the tendency to protect such persons to some extent from excessive sanctions or the consequences of their insolvency. Benevolence towards the debtor is limited by the existence of conditions of conscientiousness and honesty of the debtor in all legal systems, while the amount of debt forgiveness is different. Debt relief and providing a new chance to the entrepreneur is a kind of systemic social measure that should ensure the employment of the individual and his family, but also to ensure the continuity of the capitalist system. It is noticeable that benevolence towards the debtor through debt relief was a characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions, while the regulations of the states of legal systems based on Roman law were traditionally oriented in the opposite direction.
Although the Republic of Serbia has regulated the matter of bankruptcy and reorganization, in many parts under the EU Directive on reorganization and bankruptcy from June 2019, it has not been the case with the area of the second chance for the entrepreneur and the possibility of debt release, so it will be necessary to adjust national regulations of bankruptcy. In this paper, the authors analyze the origin of debt forgiveness in case of entrepreneur bankruptcy through history and theories, and select the comparative law and provisions of the EU Directive on reorganization and bankruptcy which regulate the second chance for entrepreneurs, as well as the purpose and measures that preceded the adoption of this Directive.
Another important possibility for insolvent entrepreneurs is their personal administration with bankruptcy estate during the process of reorganization. Entrepreneurs' personal administration is regulated by bankruptcy legislation in various ways in comparative legal systems, and in Serbian law, it had been regulated for the first time by the Bankruptcy Procedure Act of 2004, but repealed by the Bankruptcy Act in 2009. Taking into account its importance for the national bankruptcy law, Serbian legal theory has already given the reasons due to which it is necessary to reintroduce the institute of personal administration of debtors into domestic bankruptcy law. On the other hand, sole debt release in Serbian law comes into effect at the moment when the creditor declares to the debtor that he will not ask for the fulfillment of the debt and the debtor agrees with that, and such an agreement is made in writing. Debt release is a possibility provided in the Agreed Financial Restructuring Act 2015 that creditor and debtor may use during the process of reorganization, provided they reach an agreement to that end.
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