ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the 'invention' of rescue in the twentieth century and consequent competition between jurisdictions to improve rescue has brought about views as to what should be the ideals of rescue. The establishment of corporate rescue as the prevailing ethos of business brings in its wake considerations of ethics, particularly where there is conflict between the interests alluded to earlier. As the term 'corporate rescue' suggests, the rescue of companies is at the heart of the institution and is firmly rooted in its ethos, although there gradually arose a distinction reflected in later texts between 'entity rescues' and 'business rescues'. Rescue was not an option, unless creditors concurred in viewing the debtor's problems as temporary in nature. The 'bankruptcy' itself is said to derive from the practice of breaking the trader's bench in the marketplace to prevent further risk of the debtor continuing in trade and further defaulting.
