Open Access Research Article
BRIDGING THE GAP: CROSS-BORDER INSOLVENCY AND INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION IN INDIA AN EXAMINATION OF THE CASE FOR UNCITRAL MODEL LAW ADOPTION
Abstract
ABSTRACT
This paper examines what happens to a foreign arbitral
award holder when the Indian company against whom the award is held slides into
insolvency, and whether India's continuing refusal to adopt the UNCITRAL Model
Law on Cross-Border Insolvency of 1997 leaves such a creditor worse off than a
similarly placed creditor elsewhere. It begins at home, tracing how Section 14
of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 freezes arbitration against
a corporate debtor
once a moratorium is declared,
using Alchemist Asset Reconstruction Co. Ltd. v. Hotel Gaudavan
(P) Ltd. and P. Mohanraj
v. Shah Brothers
Ispat
(P) Ltd. to show how completely domestic insolvency law
subordinates private dispute resolution. It then turns to the vacuum
left by Sections
234 and 235 of the Code, dependent on bilateral treaties India has
never concluded, and to the Jet Airways litigation of 2019 and 2020,
the only occasion
an Indian tribunal
improvised a cross-border protocol without any
statutory framework. It sets out the four organising principles of the UNCITRAL
Model Law, access, recognition, relief,
and cooperation, before
comparing how the United
States treats arbitration clauses through the core and non-core distinction in
In re United States Lines, Inc., how English courts allocated the governing law
question in Syska v. Vivendi Universal SA, and how Singapore approached recognition in Re Zetta Jet Pte Ltd. The Model Law does not abolish
arbitration agreements; it gives the court a predictable mechanism for staying
and coordinating such claims, something India achieves only through ad hoc improvisation. The 2026 Amendment, despite being the largest overhaul
of the Code since 2016, again passed over cross-border reform, and the
paper closes with recommendations for a statutory chapter giving foreign award
holders a predictable route into Indian insolvency proceedings.
Published Paper
Author Details
Authors: AYUSH KUMAR
Registration ID: 1013202 | Published Paper ID: IJLRA13202
Year: Sep-2026 | Volume: 3 | Issue: 6
Approved ISSN: 2582-6433 | Country: Delhi, India
Page No.: 1324-1345
Article Information
BRIDGING THE GAP: CROSS-BORDER INSOLVENCY AND INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION IN INDIA AN EXAMINATION OF THE CASE FOR UNCITRAL MODEL LAW ADOPTION
Authors: AYUSH KUMAR
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Volume 3
- Issue 6
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- AbbreviationIJLRA
- ISSN2582-6433
- AccessOpen Access
- LicenseCC 4.0
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