Charles D. Booth

Professor of Law

Director, Institute of Asian-Pacific Business Law

Education

BA, summa cum laude, Yale University, 1981
JD, cum laude, Harvard Law School, 1984

Biography

Professor Booth returned to the faculty in January 2006 after spending 16 1/2 years at the University of Hong Kong. He teaches Asian-Pacific Insolvency Law, Second Year Seminar (with a focus on Asian-Pacific Commercial Law Topics), Secured Transactions. Corporate Reorganization, and Equitable Remedies. He is the Founding Director of the Institute of Asian-Pacific Business Law (IAPBL).

Professor Booth practiced with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York from 1984 to 1986, taught in the faculty at the Law School from 1986-89, and taught in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong from 1989 to 2005 where has also served as the Director of the Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL) from 2000-2005. In Hong Kong, he was a member of the Editorial Committee of the Hong Kong Law Journal for more than a decade, a member of the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Board of Review, and a member of the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong Sub-Committee on Debt Collection. He continues to serve as a member of the Hong Kong Deposit Protection Appeals Tribunal Panel.

Professor Booth is a leading expert on comparative and cross-border insolvency and commercial law, and is especially well known for his work on Asian law. His current research examines Hong Kong and Chinese insolvency law and reform, the role of asset management companies in China and Asia generally, the development of insolvency and commercial law infrastructures in Asia in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, and an examination of the Lehman Brothers collapse. He publishes extensively on these topics and has authored or co-authored more than 60 publications, which have been published in eleven jurisdictions.

Professor Booth is a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy, a Founding Member of the International Insolvency Institute, and a member of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law. He is frequently invited to speak or moderate panels at conferences organized by INSOL International, the American Bar Association, the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, the International Bar Association, and the Inter-Pacific Bar Association.

Professor Booth is very active in law reform. He has served as a consultant on insolvency and commercial law reform projects sponsored by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Republican Institute, and the ABA-UN Development Programme International Legal Resources Center. He is currently in charge of the insolvency portion of an ADB law reform project for Vanuatu. As part of this project, a legal draftsman and Professor Booth have drafted three pieces of legislation to be considered by the Vanuatu Parliament later this year. Professor Booth is a member of the four-person team on a multi-year comparative insolvency law and commercial law enforcement project for the World Bank. Recently, Booth was appointed as a member of the World Bank Creditors’ Rights Task Force – Working Group on Insolvency of Non-Bank Financial Institutions, which met in January 2009. He was also recently selected by the OECD to write a policy paper analyzing the results of Asian insolvency law reforms and developments over the last decade.

Selected Publication(s)

Books

Co-author with Philip Smart & Stephen Briscoe, Hong Kong Personal Insolvency Manual (2003).
Co-editor with Philip Smart & Stephen Briscoe, Hong Kong Corporate Insolvency Manual (2002).

Articles and Book Chapters

Investigation of Insolvent Companies: A Corporate Governance Crisis, 39 HONG KONG L.J. 59-63 (2009) (with Philip Smart & Stephen Briscoe).
The 2006 PRC Enterprise Bankruptcy Law: The Wait is Finally Over, 20 SINGAPORE ACADEMY OF LAW SPECIAL ISSUE 275-315 (2008).
In Memoriam: Philip St. John Smart, 1961-2008, 38 HONG KONG LAW JOURNAL 321 (2008) (with Andrew J. Halkyard); republished in 18 INT’L INSOLVENCY REV. 1-3 (UK, 2009).
Charles D. Booth, Editorial and The Continuing Need for Real Property and Secured Transactions Law Reform in Asia, Highlight Article, INSOL Electronic Newsletter (2007).
Charles D. Booth, with Philip Smart & Stephen Briscoe, Editorial - The New Chinese Bankruptcy Law , Insolvent Liquidation: A Corporate Governance Disaster, Highlight Article, INSOL Electronic Newsletter (2007).
Douglas W. Arner, Charles D. Booth, Paul Lejot & Berry F. Hsu, Property Rights, Collateral, Creditor Rights and Insolvency in East Asia, 42 Texas International Law Journal 545-60 (2007).
Charles D. Booth, with Philip Smart & Stephen Briscoe, Chapter 12, Corporate Rescue in Hong Kong, in Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal (ed), Expedited Debt Restructuring: An International Comparative Analysis, pp. 291-315 (Kluwer, 2007).
Philip Smart, Stephen Briscoe & Charles D. Booth, Insolvent Liquidation in Hong Kong: A Crisis of Confidence, (2007) 4(5) International Corporate Rescue 263-275 (UK).
Charles D. Booth, Zhang Xian Chu and Wendy Chiu, The People's Republic of China, Chapter 18, in Collier International Business Insolvency Guide 18-1 to 18-64 (2006).
Charles D. Booth, Drafting Bankruptcy Laws in Socialist Market Economies: Recent Developments in China and Vietnam, 18(1) Columbia Journal of Asian Law 93-147 (2005).
Corporate Reorganization in Hong Kong: Can Provisional Liquidation Come to the Rescue? 2(2) Journal of Restructuring Finance 1-5 (Singapore 2005).
Co-author with Philip Smart, Cross-Border Insolvency and the Discharge of Debts, 20(4) Insolvency Law & Practice 147-150 (UK, 2004).

Recent Awards, Appointments, Grants & Honors

Member, World Bank Creditors Rights Task Force – Working Group on Insolvency of Non-Bank Financial Institutions. Participated in workshop held in Washington, DC, from Jan. 12-13, 2009 and commented on Rapporteur’s draft report. (Jan. 2009-Present).
Consultant, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Conducted a review of corporate insolvency law reforms in Asia in the aftermath of the 1997Asian financial crisis and prepared a policy paper, Asian Corporate Insolvency Reform: The Need for Continued Development of Effective Insolvency Infrastructures, to be discussed at upcoming meeting of the Forum on Asian Insolvency Reform in July 2009 (Dec. 2008-Present).
Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law Expert, Asian Development Bank. Advising the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission on personal bankruptcy and corporate insolvency law reform as part of an Institutional Legal Reforms project. Drafted a diagnostic report, preliminary recommendations, and a discussion paper, and assisted in drafting new Personal, Corporate, and Cross-Border Insolvency Acts. (Mar. 2007-Present).
Member, four-person team drafting a Comparative Survey of International Commercial Enforcement & Insolvency Practices for the World Bank (June 2001-Present).