Adopted by UNCITRAL on 25 June 2004, the purpose of the Legislative Guide is to assist the establishment of an efficient and effective legal framework to address the financial difficulty of debtors. It is intended to be used as a reference by national authorities and legislative bodies when preparing new laws and regulations or reviewing the adequacy of existing laws and regulations. The advice provided in the Legislative Guide aims at achieving a balance between the need to address the debtor's financial difficulty as quickly and efficiently as possible and the interests of the various parties directly concerned with that financial difficulty, principally creditors and other parties with a stake in the debtor's business, as well as public policy concerns. The Legislative Guide addresses the issues central to an effective and efficient insolvency law and assists the reader to evaluate different approaches available and to choose the one most suitable in the national or local context.