In a ground-breaking decision, the Dutch Supreme Court recently found that a foreign bankruptcy trustee may in principle exercise the powers conferred on him under the lex concursus (the law governing the bankruptcy) in the Netherlands as well. Such powers can include the management and disposal of assets located in the Netherlands at the time of the foreign bankruptcy order. Although the Supreme Court still describes its treatment of foreign bankruptcies under Dutch law as governed by the territoriality principle, the rules it adopted bear a closer resemblance to those based on the universality principle: in principle a foreign bankruptcy trustee can exercise all of his powers in the Netherlands without the requirement of a recognition procedure.