11 U.S.C. § 721
Section 721 · Authorization to operate business
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 108 court decisions — leading case Reading Company v. Brown (1968)
Most recently applied in 2023 IL App (1st) 211351 - GPB Stockholder Group, LLC v. Partnership Capital Growth Investors III, L.P. (May 2023)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 11 U.S.C. § 363 · 11 U.S.C. § 541 · 11 U.S.C. § 704
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The court may authorize the trustee to operate the business of the debtor for a limited period, if such operation is in the best interest of the estate and consistent with the orderly liquidation of the estate.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
This section is derived from section 2a(5) of the Bankruptcy Act [section 11(a)(5) of former title 11]. It permits the court to authorize the operation of any business of the debtor for a limited period, if the operation is in the best interest of the estate and consistent with orderly liquidation of the estate. An example is the operation of a watch company to convert watch movements and cases into completed watches which will bring much higher prices than the component parts would have brought.