consumer bankruptcy, doctrinaldivisionsand issue in（消费者破产,doctrinaldivisionsand问题）（10页）.docVIP

Consumer Bankruptcy, Doctrinal Issues In Consumer bankruptcy systems in the United States and around the world have undergone unprecedented changes and stresses in recent years. Dramatic economic and technological developments have transformed the nature of consumer credit markets and consumer credit relations, unleashing competition and consumer choice, while simultaneously increasing opportunities for strategic use of bankruptcy. Increased personal mobility and broad societal changes have tended to erode traditional norms or “stigma” that traditionally constrained bankruptcy. These many simultaneous pressures have dramatically affected our understanding of the consumer bankruptcy system, both in theory and in the impact that theory holds for consumer bankruptcy law and policy. United States Legal Regime In the United States, two interrelated factors generated renewed debate about consumer bankruptcy. First, there was a staggering and accelerating rise in consumer bankruptcy filings in recent decades. Second, largely in response, Congress enacted the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA), Pub. L. no. 109-8. Congress established the modern consumer bankruptcy system in the United States with the enactment of the 1978 Bankruptcy Code, which substantially liberalized the consumer bankruptcy system. Article I, § 8, of the U.S. Constitution grants to Congress the exclusive authority to enact “uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.” The framers intended this grant of power to Congress in large part to deal with the problems of debt collection under the Articles of Confederation (1776) and, in particular, uncertainty about the authority of various states to discharge debts and whether those debts remained enforceable if the debtor relocated to another state. Otherwise, traditional debtor-creditor relations were largely unaffected by the new Constitution, including the use of debtors’ prisons, which con