Book Review: MARS The Law of Insolvency in South Africa

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Citation: (2009) 21 SA Merc LJ 138
• Author: André Boraine
• Date: 25 May 2019
• Pages: 138-141
• Published date: 25 May 2019

Book Reviews

Mars The Law of Insolvency in South Africa. By Eberhard Bertelsmann, Roger

G Evans, Adam Harris, Michelle Kelly-Louw,Anneli Loubser, Melanie

Roestoff, Alastair Smith, Leonie Stander and Lee Steyn. Ninth edition, 2008.

Cape Town: Juta & Co Ltd. 1030 pages. Price: R948.85 (hard cover).

ISBN: 9780702179266.

Mars The Law of Insolvency in South Africa is a household name in all

walks of insolvency life in South Africa. Since its very f‌irst edition in 1917,

based on the then 1916 Insolvency Act (the f‌irst uniform insolvency

legislation for the former Union of South Africa), it has established itself as a

prime reference source on South African insolvency law. Over the years, the

work has been enriched by the contributions and insights of various authors

who have carried the work forward by updating and expanding it in view of

new developments in this area of the law.

Although related legislation has been integrated into the current work as

well, the book remains based largely on the Insolvency Act 24 of 1936, the

spinal cord of South African insolvency law.Apart from ref‌lecting new case

law, new legislation and amendments to the Insolvency Act, the book can

therefore also be seen as a historical timeline of this branch of law and those

legal principles intimately related to it.

The text largely relates to debtors as def‌ined in s 2 of the InsolvencyAct,

and does not purport to deal extensively with principles of insolvency law

relating to other types of insolvent debtors such as companies and close

corporations. In fact, in order to deal with such other debtors and the issues

relating to them (such as business rescue), which is referred to as corporate

insolvency law in other jurisdictions, would probably require a second

volume in order to match the encyclopaedic essence of the current work.

Since the previous (eighth) edition of the book that appeared in 1988, a

revolution has occurred in our legal system with the inception of the new

constitutional dispensation. This development has clearly inf‌luenced all areas

of our law, including some important aspects of insolvency law. The

discussion of the property of the solvent spouse as provided for in s 21 of the

Insolvency Act (in chapter 11 of the book), and interrogations (in chapter 19),

serve as good examples in this regard.

An important question in view of the rather long time-lapse between the

current and previous edition of this work is whether it merely amounts to an

update of the previous edition, or whether it amounts to something more.

When one looks at the layout and structure, it resembles the tried-and-trusted

structure of the previous edition. However, it has clearly been improved in

many ways: eg, uncompleted contracts now form a separate chapter, and the

sequence of the chapters dealing with the vesting of estate property (assets),

138

(2009) 21 SA Merc LJ 138

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