The cooperation mechanism and legal harmonisation: analysing the past, present and future of mutual recognition and assistance in insolvency proceedings across Mainland China and Hong Kong, with insights from EU insolvency regulations

ABSTRACT This article examines the potential and challenges of the ‘Cooperation Mechanism’, a scheme introduced jointly by the Supreme People’s Court in China and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on 14 May 2021, for enhancing mutual recognition and assistance in insolvency proceedings. This article contends that the Cooperation Mechanism does not in itself constitute a formal mechanism for mutual recognition. To assess the impact of the Cooperation Mechanism, this article traces and analyses court decisions on recognition and assistance made before the implementation of the Cooperation Mechanism, and places them in contrast to those pursuant to or influenced by the Cooperation Mechanism. Additionally, it highlights a similar practice between Europe’s Brussels Convention of 1968 and two arrangements between Hong Kong and China prior to the Cooperation Mechanism, namely the 2006 Arrangement and the 2019 Arrangement, in carving out bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings, notwithstanding some technical differences.