This article examines the conceptual foundations of the institution of bankruptcy, structured into core categories such as “cash-flow insolvency” (neplatospromozhnist), “bankruptcy” (bankrutstvo), “balance-sheet insolvency” (neoplatnist), and “insolvency” (nespromozhnist), among others, which serve as the basis for the formation of modern legislation, its codification, and the application of law, as well as for the development of judicial practice and the crystallization of scientific thought into multidirectional doctrinal approaches to understanding both the institution of bankruptcy and the paths of legal regulation for relations that arise during the economic turbulence of business entities. The purpose of this study is to enhance the legal certainty of the conceptual apparatus of the institution of bankruptcy. A comprehensive analysis of existing approaches to understanding key definitions – specifically the formal-legal (codification-positivist), economic-legal, and historicallegal approaches, as well as the approaches of terminological differentiation and functional delimitation – reveals an objective need for their integration to achieve unity in understanding these key definitions as the primary criterion for the typology of a debtor’s economic crisis and for ensuring greater predictability in the application of bankruptcy legislation. Furthermore, the study establishes the feasibility of applying a combined model for correlating core bankruptcy categories, which enables the construction of a consistent hierarchy and a logical transition from “insolvency” – as a general characteristic of financial dysfunction – through “cashflow insolvency”, to “bankruptcy” as a specific legal status established by the court. Consequently, the problematic overlapping of economic, legal, and procedural concepts within a single terminological field constitutes the primary challenge of modern Ukrainian insolvency regulation, which can be resolved by clearly delimiting the levels at which definitions are applied. The proposed four-level model of the hierarchical-structural approach allows for the removal of contradictions between legislation, which operates with the categories of “cash-flow insolvency” and “bankruptcy”, and judicial practice, which focuses directly on “balance-sheet insolvency”.

Authored books

1. Bohatyr V, Likvidatsiina protsedura – zakliuchna protsedura u spravakh pro bankrutstvo (Helvetyka 2021) (in Ukrainian).

2. Dzhun V, Instytut nespromozhnosti: svitovyi dosvid rozvytku i osoblyvosti stanovlennia v Ukraini (Iuryd. praktyka 2006) (in Ukrainian).

3. Khomko L, Yanovytska A, Pravove rehuliuvannia bankrutstva: navch. posib. (Lviv. derzh. un-t vnutr. sprav 2022) (in Ukrainian).

4. Poliakov B, Pravo nespromozhnosti (bankrutstva) v Ukraini: pidruch. dlia stud. vyshch. navch. zakl. (In Yure 2011) (in Ukrainian). Edited books

5. Realizatsiia prava na pidpryiemnytsku diialnist: stan ta perspektyvy (A Bobkova, A Zakharchenko (red), Dakor 2021) (in Ukrainian). Journal articles

6. Boreiko O, ‘Katehorii “nespromozhnist” i “bankrutstvo” v pravi ta teorii’ [2012] 13 Pravnychyi visnyk Universytetu “KROK” 68–72 (in Ukrainian).

7. Dzhun V, ‘Pro hlosarii instytutu nespromozhnosti’ [2003] 2 Visnyk hospodarskoho sudochynstva 124–127 (in Ukrainian).

8. Mikusheva I, ‘Rozvytok normatyvnoho rehuliuvannia vidnosyn u sferi bankrutstva v Ukraini’ [2012] 2 Biuleten Ministerstva yustytsii Ukrainy 150–154 (in Ukrainian).

9. Openko D, ‘Istoryko-pravova evoliutsiia instytutu bankrutstva’ [2012] 3 Almanakh prava 414–416 (in Ukrainian).

10. Poliakov B, ‘Naukovo-praktychnyi komentar Zakonu Ukrainy “Pro vidnovlennia platospromozhnosti borzhnyka abo vyznannia yoho bankrutom” v redaktsii vid 22 hrudnia 2011 r. № 4212-VI’ [2013] 1–2 Sanatsiia ta bankrutstvo 256–260 (in Ukrainian).

11. Poliakov R, ‘Pidstavy vidkryttia provadzhennia u spravi pro bankrutstvo (nespromozhnist) v Ukraini ta v Nimechchyni’ [2020] 8 Pidpryiemnytstvo, hospodarstvo i pravo 87–94 (in Ukrainian).

12. Rybka I, ‘Pravova pryroda neplatospromozhnosti u tsyvilnomu pravi Ukrainy’ [2016] 37(2) Naukovyi visnyk Uzhhorodskoho natsionalnoho universytetu. Seriia: Pravo 40–45 (in Ukrainian).

13. Shynkar M, ‘Pravova pryroda bankrutstva (nespromozhnosti) bankivskykh ustanov: doktrynalni pidkhody’ [2017] 5 Pidpryiemnytstvo, hospodarstvo i pravo 63–67 (in Ukrainian). Dictionaries

14. Slovnyk ukrainskoi movy: v 11 t. T. 5: N-O (AN Ukrainskoi RSR, In-t movoznav. im. O. O. Potebni, I. K. Bilodid (holova redkol), Nauk. Dumka 1974) (in Ukrainian). Theses

15. Bohatyr V, ‘Likvidatsiina protsedura yak okrema sudova protsedura u spravakh pro bankrutstvo’ (dys d-ra f-fii 081 “Pravo”, 2020) (in Ukrainian). Conference papers

16. Bondarchuk O, ‘Istoriia rozvytku bankrutstva v Ukraini’, Kruhlyi stil “Pravozastosuvannia ta sudova praktyka u protsedurakh bankrutstva i neplatospromozhnosti” (accessed 17.03.2026) (in Ukrainian). Websites

17. Pravda ruska. Teksty na osnovi 7 spyskiv ta 5 redaktsii. Sklav ta pidhotuvav do druku prof. S. Yushkov. K.: VUAN, 1935. Redaktsiia IV. S. 137– 144 (accessed 18.03.2026) (in Ukrainian).