The Early History of Bankruptcy Law

Abstract

The history of the law of bankruptcy should appeal equally to the sociologist, investigating the status of the debtor class tfroughout the ages; to the political economist, studying the development of trade and credit; and to the jurist, striving to penetrate the gloom enshrouding the origin and the growth of creditors' legal rights and remedies.Despite the wide range of interest that one would expect the subject to command, one seeks in vain for adequate treatment of the various systems of bankruptcy prevalent at different times and in different places, ' The Roman, Jewish, French, Belgian, Spanish and Italian systems, among others, do not discharge the bankrupt.Some writers see in the Jewish Sabbatical Year of Release something analogous to a bankruptcy law.As a matter of fact, the Mosaic discharge was intended to apply to all debtors, whether solvent or insolvent,' honest or dishonest, after the lapse of a certain number of years.As a further matter of historic fact, the Sabbatical Year rarely served the purpose of discharging debtors, ingenious means to evade the law being constantly resorted to.Cf.

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