The fundamental purpose of compulsory settlement proceedings is to enable the fastest possible financial, obligation, corporate, and business restructur ing of an insolvent debtor, thereby ensuring continued operation of the viable part of its undertaking and offering creditors better prospects of settling their claims than would be available were bankruptcy proceedings instituted against the debtor. To ensure that compulsory-settlement proceedings fulfil this purpose, the court must manage them swiftly and effectively while simul taneously safeguarding creditors’ interests, particularly when those interests are threatened by an abuse of rights within the proceedings. In such cases the court must balance the two most important compulsory-settlement proceed ings principles—the expedience (effectiveness) principle and the audi alteram partem (right-to-be-heard) principle—while applying mutatis mutandis, all institutes of "general” civil-procedural law also to compulsory-settlement pro ceedings. Where appropriate, and having regard to the nature and purpose of compulsory-settlement proceedings, the court may restrict the audi alteram partem principle accordingly. The article sets out the grounds and methods for achieving the foregoing and concludes that no legislative amendments but only the diligent exercise of the existing competences of the court are required for providing for such procedural conduct by the court.
Key words: compulsory-settlement proceedings, "right-to-be-heard” principle, expedience principle, abuse of rights, restructuring, speed of compulsory settlement proceedings, mutatis mutandis application of general rules of civil procedural law.