  The Hamiltonian treatment for the collapse of thin shells for a family of
Lanczos-Lovelock theories is studied. This formalism allows us to carry out a
concise analysis of these theories. It is found that the black holes solution
can be created by collapsing a thin shell. Naked singularities cannot be formed
by this mechanism. Among the different Lanczos-Lovelock's theories, the
Chern-Simons' theory corresponds to an exceptional case, because naked
singularities can emerge from the collapse of a thin shell. This kind of theory
does not possess a gravitational self-interaction analogous to the Newtonian
case.
