For scholars, lawyers, and law students unfamiliar with bankruptcy law there are a number of useful online guides to consult. Bankruptcy in America is an inherently federal proceeding (creating a bankruptcy law is one of the explicit Article I constitutional powers of Congress), but is perhaps best thought of as set of procedures and institutions (the bankruptcy courts) that really deal with rights and responsibilities of debtors and creditors that arise mostly from state law. Bankruptcy law is therefore particularly complex both procedurally and jurisdictionally.

Bankruptcy Resources
My own long article, Bankruptcy: A Research Course, in volume 29 of the Legal Reference Services Quarterly has a wealth of information on the bankruptcy courts, bankruptcy process, and the major resources (treatises, looseleafs, databases) of interest to the bankruptcy researcher. It also includes a brief substantive introduction to Bankruptcy, possibly useful to point the true subject-matter neophyte in the right directions of at least knowing where to begin with the index and table of contents of a thorough treatise.
Several shorter online research guides exist that are useful for pointing out the major treatises and other central materials.
Georgetown Law Library’s Bankruptcy Research Guide lists the major treatises, and also includes a useful list of specialized topical journals.
Rob Richard’s excellent short article “Cost Effective Research in U.S. Bankruptcy Law,” in PLL Perspectives is aimed primarily at the law-firm librarian asked to do bankruptcy research, but covers all the basics for the new researcher as well — including valuable coverage of materials related to SEC filings, dockets, and court filings such as first-day motions.
The University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law hosts a Bankruptcy Law Research Guide that would be a good first step for an individual beginning to seek information about whether or not to pursue their own bankruptcy. The first page of the guide is structured in something akin to an “FAQ” style, and addresses issues including the role of attorneys in bankruptcy and guidance on finding bankruptcy attorneys.
Andrew Plumb-Larrick