BYU Law Review
Abstract
Traditional historical accounts posit that federal bankruptcy specialization in the United States first developed under the system established by the Bankruptcy Act of 1898. That view assumes that the structural and temporal conditions necessary to foster specialization did not exist under the nation’s earlier federal bankruptcy systems—those created by the Bankruptcy Acts of 1800, 1841, and 1867. This Article theorizes that federal bankruptcy specialization very likely occurred under the pre-1898 systems and marshals evidence to that effect, primarily focusing on the Bankruptcy Act of 1841 (the 1841 Act). That statute marked a critical turning point in federal bankruptcy law, shifting its primary focus to debtor relief and granting federal district courts substantial policymaking authority and administrative responsibilities to effectuate the law’s reorientation. Drawing on a detailed framework for assessing specialization, this Article shows how the surge of cases under the 1841 Act reshaped the operation of federal district courts, producing a specialized judiciary that facilitated specialization among attorneys and other legal professionals through the creation of patronage networks. Recovering this history invites a broader investigation into federal bankruptcy specialization before 1898, not merely to determine whether it existed, but to reconsider the extent to which it was a causal factor in the emergence of a durable bankruptcy regime in the twentieth century.
Rights
© 2026 Brigham Young University Law Review
Recommended Citation
Rafael I. Pardo,
Specialization and the Permanence of Federal Bankruptcy Law,
51 BYU L. Rev.
833
(2026).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/lawreview/vol51/iss3/12
