Insolvency
If the International Registry is a central plank of the Cape Town Convention, of almost equal importance are the provisions on insolvency.
The Cape Town Convention itself provides in art 30(1) that an international interest is effective in the debtor’s insolvency if registered prior to the commencement of insolvency proceedings.
Accordingly, it is not open to a liquidator or creditors to attack a registered international interest as not duly perfected.
Moreover, the only grounds of avoidance in insolvency proceedings are that the transaction was a preference or a transaction in fraud of creditors.
However, the Cape Town Convention does not affect rules of procedure restricting enforcement, for example, where the property of the debtor is under the control or supervision of an insolvency administrator with a view to reorganisation.