The XII Tables as part of bankruptcy's narrative: identifying creditors' collective rights

The importance of the creditors as a collective is fundamental to any analysis of the history and development of bankruptcy. Managing creditors’ expecta- tions and entitlements is a recognisable characteristic of what bankruptcy is, and what it seeks to do. This focus on creditors’ collective rights in insolvency is identifiable from as early as the Roman Republic, and whereas the Roman law of the XII Tables may at first glance seem too distant and primitive to warrant a place in bankruptcy’s narrative, on closer examination it is a fitting beginning.