Beyond Liability

Analysis and Critique of Self-Settled Asset Protection

In his doctoral dissertation, Institute research fellow Felix Aiwanger examines the phenomenon of asset protection and focuses on legal constructions that aim to shield private assets from liability. Offshore states, in particular, feature legislative schemes facilitating asset protection strategies that allow individuals to evade the consequences of liability. On the basis of his analysis, Aiwanger proposes reforms that could effectively combat a present-day problem of significant dimension.

In a study that runs on several narrative levels, Aiwanger portrays a landscape in which debtors can unilaterally evade their liabilities, consultants profit from such efforts, and states compete to enact anti-creditor legislation. Schemes of this nature serve to harm, for example, family members with maintenance claims, accident victims, and dissatisfied customers. The undertaken analysis of regulations in 43 offshore jurisdictions and 24 US states allows Aiwanger to map the problem comparatively. He also examines the underlying social context and takes economic, historical, and sociological aspects into account. Finally, Aiwanger formulates counterstrategies addressing this erosion of the liability system and outlines concrete solutions to 15 individual problems which have thus far not been adequately addressed by existing legal systems. His suggestions reach into various disciplines and fields, ranging from the doctrine of legal transactions and foundation law to the law of fraudulent conveyance, enforcement law, and private international law.

Dr. Felix Aiwanger studied law at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, where he conducted research at the Chair of Private Law, Private International Law, and Comparative Law. Among other posts, his academic efforts have taken him to Rome, where he conducted research at the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), and to the British Virgin Islands, where he worked with a law firm globally renowned for its efforts in the area of uncovering hidden assets. He has been a research fellow at the Institute since January 2024. His dissertation was awarded the German Academic Scholarship Foundation’s Lieselotte Pongratz Doctoral Prize and also the Law Faculty Prize of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

Image: © Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law