Following the economic shocks of 2007/08 a spotlight has been thrown on how best to support effective business rescue and employment protection. However, business rescue and employment protection often tend to conflict in law and policy. Employees attached to the sale of a business often represent a liability by reducing the business's intrinsic value and deterring business acquisitions in view employment liabilities that transfer by operation of the Acquired Rights Directive. As such, a balance must be sought between the conflicting policy objectives of business rescue and employment protection.

This book presents an investigation based on a comparative legal historical analysis of the approaches taken to balancing employment protection and business rescue in the United Kingdom and France, chosen due to their legal and political influence in the EU and their archetypically different legal systems. This approach is useful as a background to future reform efforts as it explains how particular jurisdictions might receive and then implement such reforms given the underlying aims of business rescue and employment protection policies.