to the trustee and to a ‘party of interest’ but not to bankruptcy judges, which is an
issue not addressed expressly by the other pertinent Rule 9020 either.
One final issue requires commenting: the relationship of bankruptcy courts’
equitable powers enshrined into Section 105 of the Bankruptcy Code and
contempt powers. Namely, the broadly formulated section, playing pivotal role in
administering bankruptcy proceedings, does not expressly grant contempt powers
to bankruptcy courts. Nonetheless, some courts have found “that it preserves
(if you believe in inherent powers) or grants (if you are a textualist) at least civil
contempt power to bankruptcy courts. Indeed, in Taggart v. Lorenzen, the Court
relied upon precedents grounded exclusively in equity practice in determining
when contempt for violation of a statutory injunction was appropriate.”*®
The exploration of the comparably rich US caseload on criminal contempt would
be a boon to comparatists and law reformers alike. The garden variety of the
reasons, the types of contemptuous behavior sanctioned by criminal contempt in
bankruptcy proceedings, and the very contents of the contempt orders would be
telling in many respects. There are many more variants, well-above the scenarios
illustrated by the few cases mentioned above. Potentially all grave and repeated
contempts of courts could be punished by criminal contempt; be it the context of
bankruptcy proceedings or of any other area of law. This may go as far as finding a
contemnor guilty of criminal contempt (by a jury) for willful violation of a district
court’s order prohibiting infringement of the respondent’s trademark.*® Presuming
that the stakes contempt of court cases involve are of peppercorn value would be
gravely mistaken, too.
US contempt laws’ weak points and harsh critique notwithstanding, though
having its strengths as manifested in its richness in sight as well, the sequitur of
the above elaboration should be obvious. Until the state of perfection is reached,
and respect for law would not be so embedded in participants of the bankruptcy
process that nobody would even think of willfully disrespecting the law or the
courts, the comparative study of the criminal contempt-bankruptcy nexus would
% Bruce A. Markell, Courting Equity in Bankruptcy, The American Bankruptcy Law Journal
94 (2020), 227-264.
% Young v. U.S. Ex Rel. Vuitton et Fils, S.A. 107 S.Ct. 2124 (1987).