Esta tese trata de três questões fundamentais do instituto da recuperação judicial de empresas no Brasil, inaugurado pela Lei 11.101 de 2005: (i) a relação entre governança corporativa e o regime aplicável à insolvência empresarial; (ii) o financiamento à empresa em recuperação judicial e (iii) a negociação e votação do plano de recuperação. O estudo integra a Teoria de Finanças Corporativas ao Direito tanto para discutir as questões propostas sob uma perspectiva normativa, como para propor uma abordagem de construção dogmática. A pesquisa busca avaliar em que medida a recuperação judicial se adapta à realidade brasileira, considerando as relações entre o regime aplicável à insolvência e os padrões de financiamento e de governança corporativa observados quanto às empresas de médio e grande portes no Brasil. Quanto ao financiamento à empresa em recuperação judicial, a tese defende uma interpretação da lei segundo a qual somente devam ser autorizados empréstimos com potencial de melhorar a capacidade financeira da devedora, sem expropriar valor dos credores. A tese ainda propõe modificação da lei para aprimorar os procedimentos de análise e decisão quanto à tomada de financiamento pela devedora durante a recuperação judicial. No que diz respeito à votação do plano de recuperação, a tese propõe critérios para aferir a legitimidade das propostas contidas no plano e dos votos manifestados pelos credores. / This thesis deals with three fundamental topics of the Brazilian business reorganization model instituted by Law No. 11.101 of 2005: (i) the relation between corporate governance and corporate insolvency law; (ii) post-petition financing to the reorganizing firm; and (iii) voting system and negotiation of the reorganization plan. It integrates corporate finance theory to the study of law to approach the proposed topics from both normative and positive perspectives. The study aims to evaluate whether the new reorganization-oriented regime is coherent with Brazilian economy, considering the relations between corporate insolvency law and the financing and governance patterns of medium to large non-financial firms. As to post-petition financing, the thesis argues that the statute should be interpreted to allow reorganizing firms to incur new debt only inasmuch as it clearly provides a potential net present value to the firm. It also proposes legislative reform to create incentives for post-petition financing and screening procedures that should be in place to distinguish between desirable and non-desirable financing arrangements. With respect to voting on reorganization plans, the thesis identifies laws implicit substantive criteria for approval or rejection of the plan, which should be considered in judging plans legitimacy.

L’implémentation d’une étude d’événement est confrontée à des choix méthodologiques plus ou moins arbitraires concernant la période de l’étude et l’échantillon sélectionné. Or, ces choix méthodologiques conditionnent les résultats obtenus, aboutissant à des divergences notoires en matière de conclusions. Une démarche par simulations, effectuées sur des données réelles de la Bourse de Tunis, nous a permis de juger de la validité des différentes méthodes à utiliser et des différents tests à mettre en œuvre, puis de déterminer celles et ceux qui sont recommandés en fonction des caractéristiques de l’événement à étudier. Nos résultats sont spécifiquement adaptés aux marchés émergents, souffrant d’un manque de liquidité, d’un manque de transparence…En application des résultats de la méthodologie recommandée, nous avons cherché à analyser l’impact sur le marché boursier tunisien, de changements d’abord microstructurels et ensuite environnementaux de nature institutionnelle. Au plan de la microstructure, les choix organisationnels ont été répartis en trois catégories distinctes : la structure du marché, la transparence et le contrôle de la variation des prix. Au plan institutionnel, nous avons axé notre analyse sur l’infrastructure légale en considérant quatre composantes : la protection des investisseurs externes à l’entreprise, les lois sur les valeurs mobilières, les transactions des initiés et le cadre comptable. / Event studies implementation faces many arbitrary methodological choices concerning the period of the study and the selected sample. Unfortunately, these methodological choices condition the results of the study, leading to important differences in the outcomes. An approach by simulations, carried out on actual data of the Tunis stock exchange, has allowed us to judge the validity of the different methods used and the different tests to be implemented, in order to determine those recommended according to the characteristics of the event being studied. Our results are specifically adapted to the emerging markets, known for their lack of liquidity, lack of transparency…Pursuant to the results of the recommended methodology, we next analyze the impact on the Tunisian stock market, of some micro-structural and institutional changes that have occurred in the last years. In terms of microstructure, we precisely examine the structure of the market, its degree of transparency and the mechanisms of price variations control. In terms of institutional environment, we focus our analysis on the legal infrastructure through the aspects of company’s outsiders’ protection, securities law, insiders’ transactions and accounting framework.

Cette thèse porte sur le processus de défaillance des entreprises en Tunisie. L’objectif est d’étudier le sujet d’un point de vue, à la fois, macroéconomique, microéconomique et juridique. Le travail est précédé d’une revue de la littérature axée sur les principaux intervenants dans le processus de faillite : les débiteurs, les créanciers et la législation en matière de faillite.La première partie propose une synthèse des résultats de nombreux travaux de recherche se rapportant, d’une part, aux différentes stratégies fixées par les débiteurs et les créanciers en vue de protéger leurs propres intérêts et d’autre part, à l’efficacité des procédures collectives dans la prévention des éventuelles utilisations opportunistes de la loi. Dans un second temps, la thèse traite le sujet d’un point de vue macroéconomique en cherchant à déterminer l’effet des fluctuations macroéconomiques sur le taux de défaillance en Tunisie sur la période allant de 1997 à 2010. Des variables spécifiques au cas tunisien et exprimant au mieux l’importance des secteurs de l’industrie et du tourisme dans l’économie tunisienne ont été considérées dans le modèle en plus des variables communément utilisées dans la littérature et qui ont prouvé leur rôle relativement significatif dans l’explication des taux de défaillance.La troisième partie de la thèse se concentre sur le niveau d’efficacité des procédures collectives tunisiennes dans la résolution du problème de défaut de paiement. Son efficacité est étudiée de point de vue : i) création de valeur et ce en termes de recouvrement total des créanciers à travers la maximisation de la valeur de l’entreprise défaillante, et ii) recouvrement des créanciers sécurisés. L’intérêt particulier porté sur la classe des créanciers sécurisés (notamment les banques) est justifié par l’importance du secteur bancaire dans le financement des entreprises en Tunisie et par conséquent dans le développement de l’économie tunisienne.La dernière partie de la thèse propose une analyse approfondie de la loi de faillite tunisienne dans le cadre d’une étude comparative avec 18 autres pays européens et non européens.A travers une approche « Law and Finance », dix indices juridiques ont été construits pour « mesurer » dix fonctions de Droit de faillite. Ensuite, des analyses univariée et multivariée ont été menées pour dégager les points de similarité ou de disparité entre les différentes lois de faillite. / This thesis focuses on the Tunisian bankruptcy process. The objective is to treat the subject from a macroeconomic, microeconomic and legal point of view. The work is preceded by a literature review focused on the main actors in the bankruptcy process: debtors, creditors and bankruptcy law. The first part provides a summary of many research results relating on the one hand, to the different strategies set by debtors and creditors to protect their own interests and on the other hand to the effectiveness of the procedures in preventing any opportunistic uses of the law. In the second part, we seek to determine the effect of macroeconomic fluctuations on the failure rate of businesses in Tunisia over the period 1997-2010. The selected variables are those that have been frequently used in the literature and that showed their significant impact onto the rate of corporate failure. Other original variables, more specific to the Tunisian case were considered to account for the importance of industry and tourism sectors in the Tunisian economy. The third part of this thesis focuses on the efficiency of bankruptcy procedures in Tunisia, a country characterized by the importance of its banking sector. We gathered original and unique information on Tunisian firms that went bankrupt between 1995-2009. We find that the Tunisian reorganization procedures are able to generate substantial recoveries, but those are mainly captured by the preferential claims (employees and public claims). This is coherent with the authorities’ willingness to improve social protection, but this raises concerns as the Tunisian firms are mainly financed by bankers. Our analysis shows that the secured creditors are poorly protected under bankruptcy: they rank almost last in the priority order of repayment, and their recovery rate is similar to one of the unsecured creditors. We also find that the rather high level of recovery rate is mainly attributable to the reorganization procedures. We finally find that the court’s choice between reorganization and liquidation is not influenced by the structure of claims. Thus, in Tunisia, the creditors are losing hand once bankruptcy is triggered.To better understand the characteristics of Tunisian bankruptcy procedures, the last part of the thesis offers a comparative study of Tunisian bankruptcy law with 18 other European and non-European countries. Ten legal indexes were constructed through "Law and Finance" approach to "measure" ten functions of bankruptcy law.Univariate and multivariate analyzes were conducted to identify the similarity or disparity points between the various bankruptcy laws.

Pour répondre à leurs difficultés financières, les entreprises doivent procéder à une opération de restructuration consistant à modifier leurs éléments de passif et subsidiairement d’actif. Pour cela, elles doivent identifier et surmonter les obstacles à cette opération en vue d’aboutir à un résultat qui correspond à leurs nouveaux besoins. Chaque système juridique apporte des réponses différentes en fonction de sa tradition, de common law ou de civil law, et des intérêts qu’il cherche à préserver. Entre les intérêts du débiteur et ceux des créanciers, le droit des entreprises en difficulté français a lui-même beaucoup évolué à mesure que les entreprises et les créanciers se sont sophistiqués. D’un droit de la faillite, à un droit pro-créanciers, il est devenu un droit pro-débiteur et semble devenir un droit mixte dont la protection des intérêts de l’une et l’autre des parties parait plus équilibrée. De tradition civiliste, il subit pourtant une influence constante des tribunaux de commerce qui semblent forcer une mutation tenant compte des innovations financières et juridiques des grandes entreprises, tout en restant adapté aux petites entreprises. Ce droit vivant et volontariste affirme clairement ses objectifs de préserver l’activité, les emplois, d’apurer le passif et apporte des outils aux entreprises en difficulté, lorsque le débiteur et les créanciers n’arrivent pas à surmonter eux-mêmes leurs divergences d’intérêts. Ces outils ont évolué et doivent continuer à évoluer pour s’adapter aux innovations contractuelles de certains commerçants, tout en restant un cadre protecteur pour d’autres. / To face financial difficulties, companies shall proceed to restructuring operation involving modification of their assets and liabilities. To this end, companies shall identify and overcome barriers to this operation to reach an overcome suited to their new needs. Each legal system provides different responses according to its legal origin, common law or civil law, and the interests it aims to protect. Between the debtor’s and the creditor’s interests, French insolvency law evolved a lot as the companies and the creditors became more sophisticated. From a bankrupt law to a creditors-friendly law, French insolvency law became a debtor-friendly law and now appears to be a mixed law which seems to protect both parties interests in a more balanced way. Despite its civil law origin, French law is constantly influenced by commercial courts that seem to force a mutation following the financial and legal innovations of large companies, while remaining adapted to small businesses. This living and proactive law clearly states its objectives to preserve the business, the employment, reduce liabilities and provides tools for companies facing difficulties, when the debtor and the creditors fail to overcome their diverging interests. These tools evolved and have to continue to evolve to adapt to contractual innovations of some business stakeholders, while remaining a protective environment for others.

S’appuyant sur les théories du financement hiérarchique et du compromis, cette recherche se donne pour objectif de tester empiriquement la relation structure financière-institution. Ces deux notions partagent des caractéristiques communes favorisant leur association conceptuelle à travers le ratio d’endettement cible spécifiquement via le comportement de conservatisme financier des entreprises. Cela ouvre de nouvelles possibilités d’analyses de ladite relation, notamment, en mobilisant le néo-institutionnalisme. Un échantillon de 204 entreprises françaises cotées à la bourse de Paris, ayant des données complètes entre 1999 et 2007, a servi à entreprendre le volet empirique de l’étude. Les principaux résultats indiquent que l’ensemble des déterminants traditionnels de la structure financière, à l’exception de la taille, joue un rôle important dans la politique de financement de ces entreprises. Le niveau de corruption et la liquidité du marché boursier français (variables institutionnelles juridico-financières) n’influencent pas le choix du niveau d’endettement, mais jouent plutôt un rôle significatif dans le choix de la maturité de la dette. Par ailleurs, la structure financière de ces entreprises converge lentement mais sûrement vers son niveau cible. / Based on the pecking order and trade-off theories, this research aims to test empirically the relationship between corporate capital structure and institution. Both concepts share common characteristics fostering their conceptual association through the target debt ratio specifically via corporate behavior of financial conservatism. This opens new possibilities for analysis of that relationship, in particular, by mobilizing the new institutionalism framework. A sample of 204 French companies listed on the Paris stock exchange, with complete data between 1999 and 2007, was used to undertake the empirical part of the study. The main results indicate that all the traditional determinants of capital structure, except the size, play an important role in the financing policy of these companies. The level of corruption and the French stock market liquidity (legal and financial institutional variables) do not influence the choice of debt level, but rather play a significant role in the choice of debt maturity. In addition, the financial structure of these companies converges slowly but surely toward its target level.

This dissertation analyses the idea that parliament controls public money in parliamentary constitutional systems of government. That analysis proceeds through an historical and contemporary examination of the way legal practices distribute authority over public money between different institutions of government. The legislative and judicial practices concerning taxation, public expenditure, sovereign borrowing, and the government financing activities of central banks are selected for close attention. The contemporary analysis focuses on the design and operation of those legal practices in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Australia, in the context of the boom-bust-recovery economic conditions experienced between 2005 and 2016. The dissertation's ultimate claims are explanatory: that "parliamentary control" is a poor explanation of the distribution of financial authority in parliamentary systems of government and should be jettisoned in favour of an idea of "parliamentary ratification". An empirically engaged methodology is adopted throughout the dissertation and (historical and contemporary) public sector financial data enrich the legal analysis. The dissertation acknowledges the impact of, but remains agnostic between, different economic and political perspectives on fiscal discipline and public financial administration. The dissertation makes a number of original contributions. It provides a detailed examination of the historical development, legal operation and constitutional significance of annual appropriation legislation, and the legal regimes governing sovereign borrowing and monetary finance. It also analyses the way that law interacts with government behaviour in situations of economic emergencies (focusing on the Bank of England's public financing activities since 2008), and the institutional and doctrinal obstacles facing judicial involvement in disputes concerning public finance (focusing on the Australian judiciary's recent engagements with public expenditure legislation).

The thesis challenges the notion of effectiveness of law as being based on the formal institutions of courts, law enforcement and written law. It argues that the best way to measure the effectiveness of law is the legal self-efficacy of laymen who are the end users of law.  It presents a new perspective on the effectiveness of law. It turns the traditional perspective of studying the effects of legal institutions around and instead studies the effect of how individuals perceive their own ability to use law. This self-reflexive ability - legal self-efficacy -  is the answer to the question “How comfortable are with communicating with legal terminology?”. The thesis makes several comparisons using the traditional perspective and legal self-efficacy and finds that legal self-efficacy is a better measure of legal effectiveness. This thesis analyzes 246 businesspeople in Russia and their risk behavior  with regards to economic transactions in relation to legal self-efficacy.  The theory behind legal self-efficacy is a combination of Luhmann’s theory of law as communication and Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy.  The first paper applies the traditional approach. It analyzes the effect of legal efficiency on leverage and debt maturity for listed and non-listed companies. The second paper is describes the conceptual foundation of the legal effectiveness based on the individual. The third paper compares the effect of private order (including legal self-efficacy) and public order institutions on the granting of trade credit.  The fourth paper analyzes the impact of legal self-efficacy and formal legal institutions on sanctions against clients in a comparative perspective. The final paper seeks out possible sources of legal self-efficacy. Legal self-efficacy can be used to better understand the interaction of individuals and law including such fields of research as behavioral accounting, behavioral law and finance, legal sociology and legal studies.