Keay's Insolvency: Personal and Corporate Law and Practice 12th Ed

Keay’s Insolvency is Australia’s leading text on personal and corporate insolvency law and practice widely used by practitioners and regularly cited in court.

This 12th edition updates the text with a detailed treatment of case law developments since the 11th edition. Although recent years have seen little significant statutory reform the volume of case law concerning corporate and personal insolvency remains steady and, in some areas, is growing. This edition incorporates discussion on the 2023 Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services’ Corporate Insolvency in Australia report throughout the text, and anticipates potential reforms under consideration in the Productivity Commission’s ongoing Barriers to Business Dynamism review (running from 2026 into 2027).

The 12th edition of Keay’s Insolvency includes:

• High Court decisions since the last edition, including Morgan v McMillan (2024), Greylag Goose Leasing (2024), Bryant v Badenoch (2023) and Metal Manufacturers v Morton (2023)
• Expanded analysis of the small business restructuring regime under Pt 5.3B
• Updated analysis of recovery proceedings under both bankruptcy and liquidation to account for reflecting recent appellate decisions
• Increased discussion of fairness in restructuring efforts following recent decisions on setting aside DOCAs and on the use of voluntary administration for an improper purpose
• Updated coverage of the latest cross-border insolvency cases

Every chapter has been revised. Less frequently cited authorities have been removed so that readers are directed only to the leading decisions alongside the most recent.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Michael Murray is a lawyer and writer who publishes on insolvency and related law and practice, in Australia and internationally, through Murrays Legal. Before becoming the inaugural legal director of ARITA, Australia’s principal insolvency professional body, he was a litigation lawyer in government practice across insolvency, tax and competition law. Michael has presented at numerous insolvency conferences in Australia and abroad, including in the UK, the EU, the US, China, Vietnam and Japan. He is a Fellow of the UNCITRAL National Co-ordination Committee for Australia (UNCCA) and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, and has authored or co-authored Keay’s Insolvency for over 20 years.

Dr Jason Harris is Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Sydney Law School, where he teaches corporate law and insolvency law. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia. Jason sits on the Insolvency and Restructuring, Corporations, and Small Business Committees of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia and on the Law Committee of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is an academic member of ARITA and a member of INSOL International, the International Insolvency Institute and the American Bankruptcy Institute. Jason serves on the steering committee for the Insolvency Law Academy in India and has been a visiting scholar in Canada, India, Singapore, England and the United States.