The paper analyzes the American and Croatian legal framework that regulates bankruptcy proceedings. Bankruptcy law includes a system of legal rules aimed at regulating relations that arise in the event of financial difficulties of the debtor, and in this sense it is necessary to regulate the debtor's relations with his unsettled creditors. Bankruptcy is defined in the literature as the legally regulated state of a person for whom the existence of bankruptcy grounds has been established. In American law, the basic source of bankruptcy law is the Bankruptcy Code of the USA, which prescribes uniform legal rules in the field of bankruptcy at the level of the entire USA as a federation. All types of insolvency procedures are regulated by the mentioned code. Procedural aspects of American bankruptcy proceedings are governed by the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, which contain a number of official forms used in bankruptcy proceedings. American bankruptcy law is based on the understanding that business failure is an integral part of entrepreneurship and that an entrepreneur who has experienced business failure deserves a second chance. In contrast to American law, in the Republic of Croatia the basic substantive and procedural law regulating most insolvency proceedings is the Bankruptcy Act. In addition to it, insolvency proceedings in the Republic of Croatia are also regulated by the Law on Consumer Bankruptcy and the Law on Extraordinary Administration Procedures in Companies of Systemic Importance for the Republic of Croatia (the so-called Lex Agrokor). The paper first begins with a historical presentation of the development of American bankruptcy law, then moves on to an analysis of the American and Croatian positive legal arrangements. In the conclusion, the potential similarities or differences of the analyzed regulations are indicated and conclusions are drawn about the possible advantages and disadvantages of the observed regulations.