The insolvency law is one of the core components of the comprehensive body of legislation that ensures the confidence of the legal community in a legal system. It regulates the conditions of widespread debtor liability and at the same time defines the framework within which creditors can expect their rights to be preserved through a reorganization and recapitalization of the indebted company. The actual effect of the insolvency law does not end at a country’s borders. Insolvency proceedings are structured according to the right to have universally applicable validity. Joint legislation on cross-border insolvency proceedings is now in effect in the form of intrastate legislation in almost all member states of the European Union. This shared European legislation is impacting intrastate reform processes and influencing the insolvency legislation. Furthermore, the intrastate legislation is being influenced by the UNCITRAL-Model law. Academic debate is increasingly concerned with the convergence movement that has been triggered as a result. Practical applications require legal dogmatic clarification of the increasingly complex regulations of insolvency legislation, and information on structures and problems of foreign European and extra-European insolvency laws, as well as and in particular with regard to its interaction with German laws. The DZWIR publication series is a forum of these discussions. It is being published as a series of monographic examinations of fundamental questions on German, European and international insolvency legislation. As such, this series contributes to the legal dogmatic clarification of disputes as well as to the promotion of European integration of national insolvency legislation.

The course of political events in the Federal Republic of Germany has been chiefly influenced by its two legislative bodies, the German Bundestag and the Bundesrat. The activities of both are so intertwined that a comprehensive documentation of the proceedings of both the Bundestag and the Bundesrat is indispensable. The microfiche edition 'Verhandlungen des Bundestages und des Bundesrates' provides access to earlier published parliamentary documents for a broad circle of scientists from the fields of history and politics as well as chambers, courts and authorities, in a practical and space-saving format. This microfiche edition of the proceedings of both legislative bodies contains: all stenographic reports (accounts of the course of each Bundestag and Bundesrat meeting); all printed documents (legislative drafts, international agreements, formal inquiries and responses, budget plans, and more); and comprehensive and detailed subject indexes compiled by the scientific documentation departments of the Bundestag and Bundesrat. Accompanying printed index volumes designed especially for this microfiche edition give researchers easy access to the contents of each legislative period.