Papua New Guinea’s “Companies Rules” for the conduct of court proceedings under the Companies Act covering Insolvencies, share Restructures, Compromises with creditors and Schemes of Arrangement were passed in 1969 when pre-Independence PNG used a version of the Queensland Rules of Court containing procedures and documents that were otherwise swept out of PNG in 1983 under a new set of indigenous rules to apply to everything except Companies Act matters. In 1997 the Companies legislation around which the Companies Rules were crafted was also repealed and replaced and the Companies Rules have been a miss-fitting orphan ever since.

The Rules Committee of the National Court (on which Erik Andersen sits) is now reviewing the Companies Rules to suggest changes. The Rules Committee’s work is recommendatory only - any changes to court rules are the absolute prerogative of the Chief Justice and the judges exercising their legislative power collectively- but input from legal & accounting practitioners who deal with insolvencies (in particular) in practice is being sought to help the review produce the best recommendations.

Click here for a copy of our request for ideas and click here for a copy of the Companies Rules themselves.