protection from creditors
I'm no legal specialist for Europe, but I'm pretty sure that the "chapter 11" also exists throughout Europe. Before you go belly up, you can walk to the judge, who will decide if it's worth for the creditors to keep the company running on a limited time and power base, or if they make more money if you pull the plug now.
If you destroy a company you wont necessarily get more of your money back.
At least in Switzerland, that's for sure, we have this paragraph. And western legal systems are all pretty much the same. US is just more famous/infamous since companies are willing to go under protection sooner. This has historical reasons, and in the US you wont be blamed your whole life if you went bankrupt once (in contrast to "the old world").
Dani