Dec. 13th, 2018, Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) Law doctoral student Ilma Daubarienė successfully defended her PhD dissertation: Controversial Aspects of Actio Pauliana Application in Commercial Contractual Relations.

The doctoral thesis examines whether the actio Pauliana under Lithuanian law, when applied in commercial contractual relations, ensures a proper balance between the competing interests of the creditor, the debtor and the counterparty, who - on the date of the transaction under attack, was the debtor's creditor. Controversial aspects of the application of this remedy are analysed from the point of view of general unsecured creditors.

Upon conducting a comparative analysis of the legal regulation of the actio Pauliana and its alternative mechanisms in bankruptcy proceedings and outside bankruptcy existing in England, the United States, the Netherlands and Lithuania, the specificity of national regulation is revealed in the research.

In Lithuania there is no clear division between actio Pauliana rules for challenging preferential transactions and transactions compromising the integrity of the debtor's estate.

After discussing problems caused by the absence of the demarcation line between the said rules in national law, the dissertation further seeks to establish whether the Paulian action under Lithuanian law enables general unsecured creditors to effectively protect their interests against their debtor. It also attempts to assess whether the national regulation ensures that an equilibrium is maintained between the conflicting interests of two types of general unsecured creditors. This means that one creditor is the claimant under the Paulian action and the other creditor of the same debtor, acting as the respondent with the aim of defending the disputed transaction he had entered into.

After controversial aspects of the application of the actio Pauliana in commercial contractual relations are revealed, guidelines are drawn up for improving the conditions of the application of the actio Pauliana in Lithuania. In general, the above guidelines may be applied not only to commercial contractual relations, but other types of contractual relations as well.