a worky, wonky one

(Really, don't read this.  I'm talking to myself.)

Bankruptcy law is exciting on several levels.  The most important level will always be its indirect benefits (on distress that does not lead to bankruptcy) followed in importance by its most salient level, its direct benefits (on bankrupt entities and their economic and other relations).

But another level on which it is, frankly, entrancing, is the conceptual level.  So much gets done with a few powerful, universal and abstract moves: perimeter definition (estate), present valuation (estimation), priority (priority), translation (classification and voting).

All this in the service of as pristine an example of values-in-tension as I know: a single pair: Creditor Rights and Debtor Preservation.  Each fully occupies its corner of the field (creditor rights in corporate liquidations, debtor preservation in individual and family bankruptcies).  Both are at their most interesting in the middle of the field, where corporate reorganizations occur.

And bankruptcy is exciting on many other levels.  Just a few: Bankruptcy is an arena in which you can tease out, better than most anywhere else, what law really is, distinct from force, interest, convention, wisdom or public spritedness.  Bankruptcy is simply the most productive and delightful use (abuse), by legal process, of judicial structure yet devised, indeed the most remarkable deconstruction of judicial process probably devisiable, given a constraint of real-world sustainability and utility.  Bankruptcy, in its modern form, is simply the most modern but fundamental single work of coherent legal construction - that is, the most extraordinary code of general application - yet written.  It is simply a towering achievement of human linguistic construction, among the cathedrals of law, it does not soar like Chartres, it sits, heavy with the spirit of need, like Durham upon its promontory.

I could go on.  But I'll just add two more: bankruptcy is fun for the aficionado because it hides in plain sight, uninteresting to most people even though its attractions are so obvious, which is precisely how an esotericist or aficionado likes it best.  And, finally, bankruptcy is about complex failures and how to respond to them - and there's little more humane, human, actually interesting than that.