The American Bankruptcy Law Journal
VOLUME 100
SUMMER 2026
ISSUE 2
CONTENTS
ARTICLES
Working to Make Bankruptcy Work: The First Hundred Years of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges Part II
Bruce Grohsgal
Bankruptcy judges were mere “referees” under the 1898 Bankruptcy Act, with none of the protections, judicial authority, or compensation of Article III judges. Bankruptcy law little resembled what it has become. The formation of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ) 100 years ago this year was a turning point — the referees organized themselves into a formidable judicial organization and political force. Part II of Prof. Grohsgal’s history of the NCBJ, Working to Make Bankruptcy, picks up where Part I left off, with the NCBJ’s not inconsiderable role in the enactment of the Bankruptcy Code which gave the judges 14-year terms and proper judicial authority. It then turns to Chief Justice Burger’s unsuccessful effort in 1984 to strip the bankruptcy judges of their judgeships, and the NCBJ’s success later that decade in achieving stable and reasonable (if unequal) compensation for bankruptcy judges. Part II concludes with considering how and why the NCBJ’s role has changed somewhat since then, and some of the challenges that it now faces and likely will face in the future.
Voluntary Bankruptcy for the Solvent Debtor: A Constitutional Defense
Hon. Rebecca B. Connelly
More than 200,000 Americans filed chapter 13 cases in 2025 under a bankruptcy system that permits debtors with regular income to repay creditors over time. A recent Fourth Circuit dissent suggests those filings may exceed CongressÕs constitutional authority. InÊVoluntary Bankruptcy for the Solvent Debtor: A Constitutional Defense, Judge Rebecca B. Connelly challenges that claim through a sweeping examination of the Bankruptcy ClauseÕs text, drafting history, early federal bankruptcy statutes, and Supreme Court precedent. Recovering the constitutional foundations of voluntary bankruptcy, the article argues that Congress has long possessed the power to extend bankruptcy relief to solvent debtors. The result is both a defense of modern chapter 13 and a timely contribution to ongoing debates over the constitutional limits of the federal bankruptcy power.
Determining the Historiographical Problem of Municipal Bankruptcy: Hatton Sumners and the Enactment and Amendment of Chapter IX, 1933-1979
Josiah M. Daniel, III
Did you ever wonder how a particular law developed? With some laws, the legislative history is straightforward, and the law’s implementation uneventful. That was not the case with the creation of municipal bankruptcy, now known as chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code. There appear to have been many twists and turns along the way. Bankruptcy historian Josiah Daniel does a deep dive into the history of chapter 9—reviewing archival evidence and piecing together an intricate and interesting historical puzzle.
Merchant Cash Advances Are Not Sales
Chrys Ondersma
Maybe you can sell shares of the Statue of Liberty after all? Merchant cash advances (MCAs) are frequently structured as present sales of receivables that do not yet exist and are not identified as specific accounts. Like the fanciful sale of an iconic landmark, these transactions raise a threshold property-law question: can a party effect a present sale of an interest that cannot yet be conveyed? Courts have typically answered disputes over MCAs by focusing on contractual provisions governing reconciliation, repayment structure, and risk allocation. In doing so, however, they have often overlooked the more fundamental issue of whether such a property interest is legally capable of being sold in the first place. Professor Chrys Ondersma confronts that question directly in Merchant Cash Advances Are Not Sales.
Chapter 11’s Quiet Competence: A Response to Coordes and Lubben
Anthony J. Casey
Scholars have described corporate bankruptcy as a system in crisis, plagued by aggressive restructuring tactics and overseen by judges too overwhelmed to effectively police the rules. In Chapter 11’s Quiet Competence: A Response to Coordes and Lubben, Professor Anthony J. Casey pushes back. Casey reframes chapter 11 as a structured renegotiation framework whose quiet competence has made it the global gold standard for reorganizing large firms. Professors Coordes and Lubben, he argues, have identified real stresses but prescribed the wrong cure: forcing new actors into a costly process would add expense, delay, and complexity without a clear account of what those actors would accomplish. Drawing on comparative evidence, including the European Union’s wariness of mandatory restructuring practitioners to the foreign debtors who race to file in U.S. courts, Casey makes the case for targeted, case-specific fixes over sweeping mandates, and for trusting the tools chapter 11 already provides.