DEBTORS AND LAW

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 782, 1 October 1929, Page 11

DEBTORS AND LAW

TRADITION IN BANKRUPTCY PRINCIPLES CENTURIES OF CRUDENESS In trading in mediaeval Europe, s merchant who could not meet his liabilities lost his bench in the business fair. His creditors would confiscate the bench and would break it. Today, the word “bankrupt” illustrates tlio ancient procedure. It is formed from the Latin words banca and rupta, signifying the breaking of a bench. Mr. W. A. Beattie gave an interesting address to the Karangahape Road Business Promotion Society this afternoon on the tradition of the lav. of bankruptcy. 111 earlier times, a bankrupt was regarded as a criminal and could be lodged in prison without an opportunity to state his case. Mr. Beattie said. It was not until Queen Elizabeth’s reign that a regulation was provided in the primitive law’ to decide who could become a. bankrupt. Merchants were the persons involved. It was not until the time of James I. that a bankrupt had the right to be examined on oath. The pendulum swung toward leniency in Queen Anne’s time, when discharge from bankruptcy was permitted. By 1706, it was necessary for a creditor to prove his debt. Mr. Beattie said bankruptcy law, as it was known now, was not introduced until 1867. New Zealand had a Debtors’ Act as early as 1844. Mr. Beattie said it was amazing that crude laws had existed for centuries. How Scottish principles had eventually been adapted for use in the English bankruptcy law was explained b> the speaker. Scotland had a practical bankruptcy law, based on Roman regulations probably formed on merchant opinions, since 1690. In England, Scottish technical terms were abolished, but the present bankruptcy rules wera on Scottish principles. These, in turn, had been handed down, rightly enough, from the laWs of ancient merchants.