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Dr Bartosz Sierakowski
ORCID: 0000-0002-1212-1729

Doctor of laws, assistant professor at the Faculty of Law and Administration at Lazarski University in Warsaw, deputy director of the Institute of Bankruptcy and Restructuring Law and Insolvency Research at Lazarski University in Warsaw. He practices as an attorney-at-law.

 
DOI: 10.33226/0137-5490.2025.2.7
JEL: K35, G33, K40

The subject of the gloss is a commentary on the judgment of the European Court of Justice of 8 May 2024 in case C-20/23. It is critical in nature. The judgment was based on the interpretation of Article 23(4) of Directive 2019/1023 (the so-called Preventive Restructuring Directive, "PRD"). The Court held that the discharge of debt in the context of bankruptcy proceedings of an entrepreneur who is a natural person does not have to be absolute. According to the ECJ, the national legislator has the possibility to exclude certain specific categories of claims from the principle of debt discharge, including claims such as tax and social security claims. However, the granting of privileged status to such debts must be duly justified under national law. The gloss focuses on criticisms of the ECJ's judgment. Firstly, because the Court failed to indicate what conditions must be met in order for the exclusion of a given claim from the debt relief rule to be considered "duly justified" within the meaning of the PRD. Secondly, the Court failed to show that public-law debts should be excluded from the debt relief rule by virtue of their public nature and should therefore enjoy absolute priority.

Keywords: discharge of debt; overindebtedness; preventive restructuring directive; insolvency proceedings