Virtual Main and Secondary Insolvency Proceedings

• Applicant: Dr. Daniel Robert Maerker
• Subject Area: Private Law
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 560700502

The dissertation deals with virtual main and secondary insolvency proceedings under Art. 36 EIR (European Insolvency Regulation). It is an entirely new subject matter. Preceding regulations do not exist. Globally there are no comparable proceedings. The arrangement of the proceedings in the EIR is insufficient. Many important questions regarding virtual main and secondary insolvency proceedings remain unanswered by the wording of the law. The execution of virtual main and secondary insolvency proceedings has not been studied yet by the jurisprudence. Not to mention that a comprehensive depiction of the virtual plurality of proceedings and a presentation of a conclusive overall concept does not exist. For these reasons, it is so far neither clear in which cases an application of virtual main and secondary insolvency proceedings comes into consideration nor which rules apply for the execution of the proceedings. As a result, insolvency administrators can currently realistically not conduct virtual main and secondary insolvency proceedings. Aim of this dissertation is it to change that. With this dissertation, insolvency administrators shall be enabled for the first time to actually pursue virtual main and secondary insolvency proceedings. To achieve that goal a complete model of virtual plurality of proceedings was developed based on Art. 36 EIR. This model on the one hand provides comprehensive and profound information on how to conduct virtual main and secondary insolvency proceedings and on the other hand answers the question in which cases such proceedings can be deployed. The findings in this dissertation are achieved primarily by an interpretation of the wording of the law and a teleological interpretation. It needs to be pointed out that a set of regulations for the teleological interpretation of the law was developed in the dissertation. At the beginning of the thesis, the methodological approach is being explained in detail. With the development of a complete model of virtual plurality of proceedings the dissertation creates something entirely new. Therefore, the dissertation comprises fundamental research. Almost one hundred percent of the content constitutes something completely new for the jurisprudence.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants