When bankruptcy lawyers appear before lay people or other lawyers, we're sometimes looked at the same way as pathologists. We talk about how death is natural and beautiful, but everyone else is somewhat disgusted at how we spend our time. The image of bankruptcy lawyers as pathologists in the minds of most, however, helps to counterbalance the tendency among some bankruptcy judges and lawyers to view themselves not as pathologists but rather as miracle workers, people who can make flowers grow in the desert and bring the dead back to life. Understanding environmental law issues—or any other legal issues in bankruptcy—can begin only after we recognize the modesty of bankruptcy law's ambitions, the limits of what can be done in a bankruptcy proceeding.

Bankruptcy issues, I shall suggest, are largely procedural ones. One you pass the technical vocabulary, they are not that difficult. Do not be misled by people reciting odd vocabulary and section numbers. Bankruptcy changes how litigation goes forward, but the substantive issues, such as who should prevail over whom, are not in themselves determined by bankruptcy law. They are determined by the substantive state or federal nonbankruptcy law.