Taking from Farm Lenders and Farm Debtors: Chapter 12 of the Bankruptcy Code

In passing Chapter 12 of the Bankruptcy Reform Act, Congress has effectively invalidated certain important provisions of existing farm mortgages. Equally significant, Congress has disabled farmers from granting binding mortgages on the full, value of their property. Although no court is likely to find the Chapter to violate the fifth amendment, the Chapter constitutes a substantial and retroactive alteration of the rights of existing mortgagees and a restriction on the powers of prospective mortgagors to grant valid mortgages. The thesis of this paper is that Congress was both wrong and shortsighted in its enactment of Chapter 12. Congress was wrong to enact a law that redistributes wealth from existing mortgagees to existing mortgagors. Congress was shortsighted to enact a law that will have the long-run consequence of diminishing the farm debtor's power to mortgage his land and, thus, his capacity to buy credit.