Jeffrey graduated from the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore in 2013. During the course of his study, he won the Lucien Wong prize for International Corporate Finance for the Academic Year of 2012/2013, and was on the Dean’s List and Overall Dean’s List for the Academic Years 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 respectively. Prior to coming to law, Jeffrey was a Physics major and had graduated from the Faculty of Science of the National University of Singapore in 2010. He is currently practicing in the field of Banking and Finance in a leading local law firm and is interested in the interface of legal doctrines and principles in real world practice. His current research interests include practical issues in financial instruments arising from rules in corporate insolvency and doctrines in personal property law.
Anti-deprivation rule in Belmont Park Investments Pty Ltd v. BNP Corporate Trustee Services
The anti-deprivation rule (“ADR”) of corporate insolvency is of immense interest in banking and finance because it limits the effectiveness of contractual clauses found in the documentation of finance products. The effectiveness and validity of various clauses like the flip clause which switches the priority between secured parties in a synthetic securitisation all depend on whether the clauses infringe upon the ADR.
While laying down some guidelines for the ascertaining compliance with the ADR, the UK Supreme Court in Belmont Park Investments Pty Ltd v. BNP Corporate Trustee Services [2011] UKSC 38 (“Belmont Park”) did not sufficiently clarify the principles behind the ADR. Using Belmont Park as the platform, the proposed paper explores the policies and the structure of English corporate insolvency law, with a view to identifying the theoretical underpinnings of ADR and the basis of interfering parties’ freedom of contract. As a common law rule, the paper will inform the resolution of similar issues which may arise in other common law jurisdictions like Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
