The first potential rescue procedure to be considered here is receivership. It follows from the above discussion that an appraisal of receivership should go further than offering an outline of powers and duties and should consider the role and conception of receivership as it operates. This chapter, accordingly, will look at receivership as a process as well as an institution. The laws, procedures and actors involved in receivership will be examined and the benchmarks of efficiency, expertise, accountability and fairness will be employed in asking whether receivership plays an acceptable role in insolvency as a whole. The part played by receivers in rescues will be a focus here, but attention will also be paid to ongoing corporate operations and the impact of receivership on these. At a more general level, questions will be asked about the way the receivership role is conceived within current insolvency law and whether an alternative approach is called for.

To set the scene for such a discussion it is necessary to outline the development of receivership, the procedures adopted in receivership and the duties and obligations that form the legal framework for receivership.

The development of receivership

Receivership is a long-established method by which secured creditors can enforce their security. There have traditionally been two types of receiver in English law: the receiver appointed by the court and the receiver appointed by a debenture holder under the terms of the debenture deed.