Narrowing Equity in Bankruptcy

[...]statutes are not drafted in a vacuum; rather, Congress creates statutes against a backdrop of existing laws and legal frameworks.16 This is particularly true in bankruptcy: several bankruptcy statutes preceded the current Bankruptcy Code,17 and the bankruptcy courts can trace their roots-and equity powers-to the Court of Chancery in England.18 Second, statutes by their very nature are limited; they cannot encompass every com ceivable situation that may arise in practice.19 Thus, entities, such as bank' ruptcy courts, tasked with interpreting and applying statutory language must have the flexibility to interpret the statute in a way that is consistent with the broader framework against which it was enacted and in a way that furthers the statutory purpose as the situation demands. "32 For Thorne, policy concerns, such as the promotion of justice and avoidance of harsh results, should permit the bankruptcy court to exercise a range of equi' table powers.33 Others have focused on the text of the Bankruptcy Code's grant of equi' table powers, 11 U.S.C. 105(a), to make the case for expansive equitable powers in the bankruptcy courts. "34 These authors reason that 105(a)'s language thus allows bank' ruptcy courts to fashion even extraordinary relief if appropriate.35 Kenneth N. Klee has observed that Congress intended 105(a)'s grant of power to be equivalent to the All Writs Act,36 a "broad" statute that operates as a gapfiller and allows courts to issue "necessary or appropriate" writs.37 Finally, Matthew T. Gunlock has observed that 105(a) is a "reminder that, ulti mately, bankruptcy courts are equitable in nature and that all of the Code's provisions are subject to a balancing of the equities in any case" (emphasis in original).38 But not everyone agrees that a bankruptcy court should have broad equitable powers-or even any equitable powers at all. "41 Daniel B. Bogart acknowledges that 105(a) is modeled on the All Writs Act but suggests that bankruptcy courts in turn model their application of 105(a) on the federal courts' "cautious use" of the All Writs Act.42 And Manuel D. Leal has observed that bankruptcy judges' equitable powers have been "curtailed" over the years through the Bankruptcy Code, its amendments, and court decisions.43 Still others contend that equity has no place in bankruptcy at all.