This chapter seeks provide a general overview of insolvency systems around the world, including examples and references from more than 50 jurisdictions from Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. Due to a variety of legal, economic and historical reasons, it will be shown that insolvency laws in advanced economies and emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) share many similarities. It will be argued that the adoption of "international best practices" and undesirable legal transplants have also contributed to these similarities. Interestingly, the divergences generally found in the design of insolvency law in advanced economies and EMDE do not seem to respond to their different market and institutional environments. Instead, they are usually explained by other factors such as legal origins, the different motivation and political economy of insolvency reforms, or the moment in which a particular insolvency legislation was enacted. It will be argued that the lack of an insolvency law tailored to the market and institutional environment existing in EMDEs has contributed to the failure of their insolvency law.