Bankruptcy is the busiest federal court in America. In theory, bankruptcy in America exists to cancel or restructure debts, a safety valve designed to provide a mechanism for restarting lives and businesses when things go wrong financially.
In her new book, Unjust Debts, legal scholar Melissa B. Jacoby shows how bankruptcy has also become an escape hatch for powerful individuals, corporations, and governments, contributing in unseen and poorly understood ways to race, gender, and class inequality in America. Across a broad range of crucial issues, Unjust Debts reveals the hidden mechanisms by which bankruptcy impacts everything from sexual harassment to health care, employment discrimination, the opioid crisis, and gun violence.
Melissa B. Jacoby is a Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A frequent commentator on bankruptcy and debt in national media outlets, Unjust Debts is her first book.
