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.

Nach der Insolvenzrechtsreform wurde nicht deutlich, wie der Begriff der Zahlungsunfähigkeit zu verstehen sei. Die alte Definition war nicht mehr hilfreich und führte zum größten Teil zu masselosen Verfahren. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit vom BGH entwickelten objektiven Kriterien zur Zahlungsunfähigkeit gemäß § 17 InsO.